Rise of a Light Lady
by JosieVang2
Summary: We all know the stories. The rise of Grindelwald, from teenager to warlord. The rise of Voldemort, from child to dictator. The rise of Albus Dumbledore, from dark-arts obsessed teen to champion of muggle rights and leader of the light. Witness now the rise of a new master, a new champion, a new Lady. The Lady of the Light, Elizabeth Potter. Fem!Harry! Please review!
1. Lost and Found

It took Dumbledore, the greatest wizard alive, several hours to discover the location of The-Girl-Who-Lived.

But once he had located the girl, found her in an orphanage for boys and girl, Albus chose not to waste any time in going to meet her.

Dumbledore wasn't going alone, however.

Severus Snape was coming along as well, for he wanted to meet the girl as much as Albus did.

This was how they ended up sitting in a rather lavish, large office talking to the matron of the orphanage - an orphanage that was VERY well off.

Not at all the hovel Tom Riddle had grown up in, a great reassurance for Dumbledore, because this scenario was too close to Tom's for the old man's comfort.

"You're here to take Elizabeth to a school for the gifted?" asked Mrs. Jones, eyes wide, conflicting emotions dancing within them.

Dumbledore smiled his usual grandfatherly smile, with a twinkle in his eyes, when he answered. "That's right. She's been registered since birth, since her parents went there as well. Mrs. Jones, if you don't mind, could you tell me how long Elizabeth's been here at the orphanage?"

"Almost ten years, I think. A police officer brought her in...November, I think it was. She was such a beautiful baby, but..."

Mrs. Jones didn't continue, and Dumbledore started to have a bad feeling. He could remember a talk that he had a little over 50 years ago that had started in a similar way. Even Snape started to pay more attention to the conversation.

"Was there something wrong with the baby?" Dumbledore said calmly.

Mrs. Jones started, and then she laughed. "Oh no, no, no, nothing was wrong with her at all, except if you want to count that she was the most beautiful little girl I'd ever seen. Very healthy, but she rarely ever cried."

Dumbledore felt a wave of relief, but he simply smiled. "And what else can you tell us about young Elizabeth?"

Now Mrs. Jones appeared uncomfortable.

Dumbledore's bad feeling returned.

"Well...Elizabeth is an VERY good student. She consistently achieves the highest marks in her year."

Albus visibly relaxed; maybe she was uncomfortable because she didn't want them to think that she was exaggerating. There was probably no reason for his bad feeling that kept surfacing.

"And friends?" Albus questioned.

Mrs. Jones's eyes shifted, and she glanced away. Nervous. "Well, Elizabeth does have a best friend. Another orphan girl her age by the name of Dot."

"'Dot?'" said Snape, raising an eyebrow, a touch of amusement in his tone.

"I didn't give her the name." Mrs. Jones said lightly, though some small amount of defensiveness was evident in her voice. Albus could tell that this woman truly, deeply cared for the children in her orphanage, and for that, she had his respect. "When Dot first arrived here as a baby, she didn't even have a name. She was just left at the front door. No parents, no guardians, no explanation. As she grew up, I DID give her the name 'Melissa', but she didn't like it, and when she was five years old she completely rejected it, refused to be called by it, and took on the name 'Dot' instead."

"You let a child choose her own name?" Severus said, looking both exasperated and all the more amused.

"I'm sure no harm has come of it." Albus interrupted, his eyes twinkling merrily.

"None at all." Mrs. Jones agreed, a little firmly.

"And Miss Potter...?" Dumbledore said, bringing them back on topic. "This Dot is truly the only friend she has?"

"Well, you know what they say, better to have one good friend for life than many bad friends." Mrs. Jones shrugged.

"Indeed." said Severus quietly, and Albus knew his thoughts were at that moment on Lily, Severus's only true childhood friend.

Dumbledore regarded the matron for a moment, then sighed. "Mrs. Jones, I cannot help but feel that there is much you are holding back, and if I am to accept Miss Potter into my school I will need to know everything."

Mrs. Jones's eyes seemed to glaze over, then she shook her head and let out a sigh herself.

"I'm sorry." she said softly, her eyes just as soft now. "It's just...it was so tragic, so horrific...and..."

"Has something happened to Elizabeth?" Severus said, alarmed.

"Nothing recent!" Mrs. Jones said quickly, flustered now. "No, no...I...but something DID happen to her, a few years ago..."

"Take all the time that you need to tell us." Albus soothed.

For several minutes, there was silence.

Mrs. Jones took deep breaths, staring down into her lap and seeming to murmur things to herself, as if rehearsing a speech.

Finally, she looked up at Albus and Severus again.

"Elizabeth and Dot weren't always friends." Mrs. Jones began. "And Elizabeth didn't always JUST have Dot. In fact, when Elizabeth was younger, she had many friends. And she was different than...how she has been the last few years, after...after it happened. Elizabeth used to be a very kind, very sweet, friendly, outgoing, confident girl. And she had wit, a sharpness to her tongue, really. Especially when she got angry."

Severus had gone pale, for the woman could have been describing Lily Evans as a child.

Albus sent the potions master a look of comfort and sympathy.

"Two years ago, there was a fire here." Mrs. Jones continued quietly, looking ashamed and guilty. Horrified. "No one knows how it started, even to this day, but it was...it was horrible. More than a few staff members died, but thankfully none of the children did." Mrs. Brown took another of her deep breaths, and wiped away a stray tear. "But that isn't to say that the children escaped uninjured. And Elizabeth...she suffered the worst."

"Elizabeth..." Mrs. Jones's voice was a whisper now. "She almost died. She lost an ear, an eye, arm and a leg...severe burns. She had to stay in the hospital for weeks after, and she wasn't even concious."

"She was in a coma?" Severus asked, visibly shaken and paler than ever, his tone one of horror and shock.

Mrs. Jones gave a tight nod. "Yes, she was. But obviously she came out of it after a few weeks. But when she did...you have to understand, children, they- they can be cruel, and they're easily frightened. They called her things. 'Monster'...'hideous'...they called her. None of the children who had been her friends before, all the ones who had just loved her...well, they were afraid of her after the fire. They...abandoned her."

"And...how did Elizabeth cope with these...sudden changes?" Dumbledore asked carefully. His bad feeling was back, and his mind kept wondering, was this the point in the story where he and Severus were going to be told that Elizabeth had used magic to take revenge on the children who had treated her with such indifference and cruelity? Had this fire turned Elizabeth into another Tom Riddle?

"Well, at first she was...she was upset, obviously. Traumatized." Mrs. Jones replied. "But she got past it, with the help of Dot." she added, giving a small smile. "Dot and Elizabeth hadn't been friends, before the fire, like I said earlier. But after...Dot stayed at Elizabeth's side, visited her in the hospital every day, and never failed to stand up to the other children for her. They've been inseperable ever since the fire."

"During this fire, young Elizabeth saved Dot's life, I presume?" Albus said, feeling a swelling of relief, pride, and elation.

"Nearly at the cost of her own." Mrs. Jones confirmed, eyes sparkling with fresh tears. "I don't know how Elizabeth did it, but...as you know, Elizabeth came out of the fire almost dead, so horribly disfigured, and with her limbs lost...but Dot didn't have so much as a speck of ash on her."

Severus and Albus exchanged looks. They both knew how such a thing was possible, and Elizabeth had to be incredibly, powerfully magic, to have done it as a child, as an untrained witch - even if she had done it unconciously.

"Of course, the girls had an explanation." Mrs. Jones said, her voice full of sympathy. "A wild tale involving flashing lights, a man in black robes-" she nodded at Severus. "-much like yours, with a...another man's head on the back of his, and such an odd name. What was it...Voldemort."

Albus nearly lost control of his composure, and his magic, right then and there, in the middle of the muggle orphanage.

Only Severus's many years as a spy kept HIM from exploding as well.

Albus's heart was thundering, his mind racing. Panic, shock, horror.

Voldemort had been HERE! Here, two YEARS prior to Albus and Severus's arrival! He had tracked down Elizabeth, and tried to finish the job he had started ten years ago in Godric's Hollow!

And by the sounds of it, he had nearly succeeded.

Nearly.

Once again, it would seem, Elizabeth Potter had defeated the Dark Lord - and had even protected her young friend Dot from him.

But how?

The power the Dark Lord knew not, referred to in the prophecy?

Albus and Severus needed to know.

Mrs. Jones noticed their reactions, but misinterpreted them.

"Please don't think Elizabeth is crazy or anything." she said quickly. "They were both young girls, traumatized, and children's minds often invent these kinds of fantastical tales to help them accept their traumas - to help them to accept what happened and what they saw."

Neither wizard was about to tell Mrs. Jones that the tale the two girls had told her about the night of the fire was very, very real.

"Of course we do not think that." Albus said, once he had regained his control. "However, even if Elizabeth were not of sound mind due to the fire, I do not believe I would be able to blame her." he added, his thoughts turning, as they often did, to his deceased sister, Ariana.

"Precisely." Mrs. Jones agreed. "After that...no one could blame her."

"We would like to speak with her now." Severus spoke up suddenly, his voice carefully controlled, calm, yet holding a slight tightness that only Albus was able to pick up on. "Please." Severus added, a rare occurrence, and perhaps a sign of just how much this news of Voldemort's attack on Elizabeth Potter's life again had truly shaken the potions master.

"Of course." Mrs. Jones rose from her desk and led the way out of the office.

Albus and Severus, of course, followed.

"You still want to accept her into your school, even now that you know of her situation?" Mrs. Jones questioned as she led the way through the orphanage, fixing concerned eyes on the two wizards over her shoulder. "Don't misunderstand me, I'm very pleased that she's been accepted into a school for the gifted, especially if her parents attended, since the poor girl doesn't know a thing about them, but..." Mrs. Brown's concerned eyes narrowed. "but I'm afraid for her, that she'll be an outcast, bullied, even, at this school of yours. She is, here, even two years after the fire. Elizabeth is nearly a mute, she almost never leaves her room, and she'll never be parted from Dot."

"I don't think Elizabeth will agree to go." Mrs. jones finished, a little sadly, a little warningly.

While that all may have been true, Dumbledore acknowledged silently to himself, with this revelation of Voldemort's attack on the orphanage - on Elizabeth Potter - it was all the more apparent that Elizabeth Potter would have almost no CHOICE in going to Hogwarts, for only at Hogwarts would the girl be truly safe.

Dumbledore was already thinking that he would need to pull a few strings at the Ministry to allow the girl to stay at Hogwarts over the summer.

"I am certain that, after speaking to us, she will agree to attend." Albus politely, shortly, countered the matron.

She had to.

They arrived outside the door to Elizabeth's room, and Mrs. Jones gave it two soft knocks.

Albus barely heard the soft, breathy whisper of a voice that responded from within with a simple, "Enter."

He had no trouble hearing the second girl's voice that followed the first in adding, in a tone that was all amusement, "At your own peril." which, Albus mused, must have belonged to young Elizabeth's friend Dot.

Mrs. Jones opened the door and motioned Albus and Severus in. She didn't follow, and she closed the door behind them.

Two girls lay together on the bed, and when Albus's eyes fell upon them, he knew in an instant which of them was which.

One was tall, blond, cheery and blue-eyed, and not at all marred. The girl could only be Dot, for the OTHER girl could only be - based on Mrs. Jones's reminiscences; the story of the fire - Elizabeth.

Elizabeth's face was a mask. A mask of burned, melted flesh. Furrows and valleys, little ridges - like melted wax.  
Her left eye was closed, the eyelid as wretchedly burned as the rest of her, and it was drooping, as if it were eternally crying. The missing eye Mrs. Jones had mentioned.

Elizabeth's nose was gnarled, and looked like a button; there was no tip to the nose.

Her left ear was nothing but a nub, perhaps useless for anything besides the purpose it was currently serving: to hold her hair behind her.

The melted wax skin was not limited to just her face. It went down her neck and throat, and still further, over her bare shoulders and down the backs of her arms.

Her left arm ended in a stump just above the elbow, but her right arm was whole, whole and as scarred as the rest of her body, and so, too, was her right hand.

The left leg was the same as the arm, ending in a stump, though the leg stump was hidden beneath the skirt Elizabeth wore, and so Albus only saw its general shape under the fabric.

The only features Elizabeth Potter possessed that were untarnished and whole were her right eye, which was the exact same shade and shape as her mother's, and her long, dark red hair that was, like the eye, so shockingly Lily's.

Albus finally tore his gaze away from Elizabeth, swallowed his shock and sympathy, noted the two muggle prosthetic limbs on the bedside table - an arm and a leg - and looked to Severus.

The potions master looked much as he had ten years ago, in Dumbledore's office, on the day he had learned of Lily's death - ashen-faced, eyes moist, and an expression of utter heartbreak that included a twisted, parted-lipped frown.

The gaze of Elizabeth's bright green eye fell on Dumbledore. She looked him up and down, slowly, coolly, and intensely, for a long moment. Her gaze slid to Severus next, and she examined him just the same. The examination took almost a full minute (far longer than the girl had spent on Albus), and during it, Severus regained his composure.

Apparently satisfied with whatever she had determined about Severus, the cool gaze of Elizabeth's green eye returned to Albus.

Still she didn't speak. Neither did Dot, who was totally still, and totally fixated on Elizabeth, as if waiting for a cue - or a command.

Ignoring the sinking feeling he was having, Albus greeted them jovially, and with his usual twinkling eyes.

"Elizabeth, it is a pleasure to see you again. My name is Albus Dumbledore and my companion is Professor Severus Snape. And you must be her dear friend, Dot." he added to the blond girl.

"Nice to meet you." Dot replied, all good cheer and humor, after looking at Elizabeth and receiving a nod and a smile.

Or at least, as much of a smile as Elizabeth could manage. Most of the muscles in her face seemed to be either barely functioning, or not at all.

Suffice it to say, Elizabeth's "smile" hadn't been particularly endearing or attractive.

"Good evening." Elizabeth finally spoke, her voice a soft whisper.

"Elizabeth, Professor Snape and I came to invite you to a school for gifted children." Albus said quietly.

Elizabeth just nodded. "I know."

"We know about everything." Dot added, quite cheerfully. "Hogwarts, magic, Voldemort, all of it."

"How...how could you know?" Albus had to choke to get the words out, his composure utterly shattered by pure, overwhelming shock.

"Well," Dot said slowly, with obvious relish. "It's-"

Albus felt some amazement as Elizabeth cut Dot off in mid-sentence simply by putting her hand on the blond girl's leg.

"Not yet." Elizabeth whispered, her green eye fixed on Dumbledore.

Dot gave a nod, her cheery demeanor giving way to a seriousness, a heaviness, that Dumbledore had never seen in a child before. "It's a long, sad story, and we don't want to tell it yet." she said quietly.

"But she wanted you to have these." said Elizabeth, rummaging around in her bedside drawer and pulling out two envelopes. Her green eye was on Severus, and her hand held the envelopes out to him, patient, waiting.

"Who...wanted me to..." Severus began, completely nonplussed.

Elizabeth smiled as well as she could. "Lily Evans."


	2. An Uncertain Beginning

"These...letters...are from Lily?" Severus's lips barely moved, and he WAS trying his best to get them to do so. He couldn't tear his gaze away from that bright green eye. Lily's eye.

"One is." Elizabeth spoke again. "The other is from James Potter. Mum wanted you to read them. She told me to tell you to read the one from her first, that it would make it easier to read the one from James."

Severus finally lowered his gaze, stepped forward and took the letters from the girl. Inside, he felt the familiar hatred rising at James's name, and the familiar sneer was just coming to his lips. But he called on all of his training and experience as a spy to contain it all, to keep his face blank, because if Lily wanted him to read both of the letters, even if one was from James...

Snape couldn't, wouldn't, refuse Lily a request from beyond the grave - no matter just HOW she had even made it. Through her daughter, she had made it, and that was that.

And besides, now was not the time or place for his hatred of James. Not here, not in front of James's daughter. It wouldn't be appropriate, nor fair to the girl.

"Thank you." Severus forced himself to say, stowing both the envelopes in his robes.

Elizabeth said nothing, but a smile tugged at her face, and that bright eye of hers seemed to glow just a little bit brighter.

"Would I be correct in assuming that Elizabeth is not the only girl in this orphanage that can do things that would be considered...extraordinary?" said Dumbledore, his eyes straying again to Dot.

"You would." Dot confirmed, resuming her demeanor of good cheer. "It's off to Hogwarts for the both of us. As if we'd have had it any other way." she added, with a wide smile flashed in Elizabeth's direction.

"And would your magical abilities account, in part, for your survival on the night when, two years ago, Lord Voldemort arrived here to kill Elizabeth?" Dumbledore pressed.

"In part." Elizabeth answered shortly, on Dot's behalf, her green eye suddenly blazing, and her voice holding such a fury to it in those two words alone that it shocked even Severus.

Several dresser drawers sprung open, and various items of clothing came shooting out like water from a fountain. The windowpane trembled, the bed upon which the girls lay began to rise into the air, and the bedside table shot across the room and struck the door with a loud crack.

Severus made to draw his wand and bring order to the chaos, the danger, that was Elizabeth Potter's accidental magic, but Albus stopped him with a look. Severus hesitated, then stowed away his wand, and looked to Elizabeth.

It took only a moment. A second. A heartbeat.

Severus saw Elizabeth's eye close, and then the entire room fell silent.

Everything ceased moving, ceased shaking and flying about.

The bed gently touched down again, and Elizabeth opened her eye.

It was bright, it was beautiful, but it was not a vessel overflowing with hatred. Not anymore. Now it was as it had been, an eye that shone with intellect and life, and yet also a kind of weariness that reminded Severus of what he sometimes saw in the eyes of Albus.

"We are not talking about that night." Elizabeth said, in her breathy whisper of a voice.

"Of course, my apologies." Albus inclined his head. "I cannot imagine how traumatic that night was for you - for both of you."

Although Albus and Severus needed to know exactly what had happened on that night, Albus had wisely chosen to cease pursuing the topic in the wake of Elizabeth's silent, yet absolute, fury.

At least, that was what it would have seemed like to anyone who did not know Albus Dumbledore as well as Severus did.

As it was, Severus knew Albus had only backed off because they would have months ahead of them in which to attempt to retrieve the details from the two girls, and in a much subtler, gentler way than out-and-out demands and inquiries.

It would take time, it would take patience, and it would take trust, but Severus was certain that, in time, he and Albus would have their answers about the events that had occurred on that night two years ago.

And when they did finally get the answers, they would better be able to protect Elizabeth Potter.

"Well then, since you are already aware of the matters Severus and I had come here to inform you of..." Albus began merrily, his eyes twinkling again. "I suppose it is high time I gave you this." He retrieved a thick, yellowish envelope from his robes and, with a flick of his finger, sent it zooming across the room to land in Elizabeth's lap.

Elizabeth held the envelope before her - inspecting the Hogwarts crest - before glancing at Dot, causing the latter girl to jump to her feet and retrieve the former's prosthetic limbs.

Severus flicked his wand lazily, and the bedside table slid back across the room to the very spot in the room that its name suggested, causing the girls to look at him with gratitude before they looked to each other.

Elizabeth and Dot traded off, with Dot handing Elizabeth her prosthetics, and Elizabeth handing Dot the envelope. As Elizabeth set about putting on her prosthetics, Dot opened the envelope and read its contents aloud.

"I have no money." Dot declared, after she had finished reading both the acceptance letter and the list of required items and course books. "How am I going to get a wand? A cauldron? A CAT?" Her last words came out a bit too shrilly for Severus's taste, and he had to work not to wince.

"I have money." Elizabeth said simply, giving one of her odd, not-even-half-a-smile smiles to Dot.

"Enough for cats?" Dot responded, amusement evident in both her voice and her answering smile.

Elizabeth shook her head. "You're only allowed ONE pet." And then, to Severus's amazement (amazement at what she next did, as well as amazement at the REACTION IT CAUSED IN SEVERUS), she LAUGHED.

Elizabeth Potter laughed, and it was very nearly music to Severus's ears. He had to do something then that he hadn't done in far too many years: he had to fight the urge to smile.

"I know." Dot laughed, too. "I'm getting a cat, and so are you."

Elizabeth's eye was alight with delight. "Presumptuous. Owls are really pretty..."

"But owls aren't made for hugging." countered Dot.

"True." Elizabeth conceded. "Cats it is, then."

"As if I didn't know what you would pick." Dot said, at the same time as Elizabeth said, "As if you didn't know what I would pick."

"So you have money." Dot said, turning serious. "Where do we get it?"

"Where we get all of these spellbooks and magical items." Elizabeth said, tapping the items list letter with her artificial index finger. Her eye found Severus and Albus again, and all that amusement, all that joy and playfulness that had come from her, as if from an entirely different, entirely normal child, faded away, leaving only that strange duality of weariness and sharpness. "Where do we get them, and how do we get there?"

"Professor Snape could accompany the two of you to Diagon Alley to buy all of your school supplies." Albus suggested without so much as a glance in Severus's direction.

While such a thing would normally have irritated the potions master, in this specific situation...Severus didn't mind it at all, for he had had every intention of suggesting such a thing himself, the suggestion born of his desire to spend time with, and protect, Lily's daughter.

"We don't want to..." started Dot, her eyes darting between Severus and Elizabeth, her lips curving into a sly smile.

"Impose." Elizabeth supplied for her blond friend, her green eye shimmering with a mischievousness to match that which was contained in the twin blue eyes of Dot.

"Yeah, we don't want to do that." Dot agreed, her eyes now squarely on Severus.

"It would not be any trouble." Severus said slowly, wondering just what these CHILDREN were attempting to pull here.

The girls shared brief looks of triumph, and Severus resigned himself to the knowledge that whatever they had been doing had been done, and he was not likely to discover just what they had even been doing to begin with.

Although, there was ONE certainty in Severus's mind now: they were going to Slytherin House.

And what a joy that would be, sincerely. What PRIDE and WARMTH Severus would take in the knowledge that Lily's daughter was worthy of being in Slytherin, in HIS very House!

The House of the ambitious, the cunning, and those with talents and specialities that would see them achieve great things.

Revolutionary medical potions and ingenious new spells, high positions in the Ministry...Slytherin House saw it's students ascend.

Looking at Elizabeth Potter, Severus wondered just how high she would ascend.

Especially if given the proper guidance, attention, and training.

"I will be here tomorrow to collect you." Severus told the girls, a thin smile (he was out of practice) coming to his lips. "I will also be seeing the both of you back here safely AFTER you have your school things."

"Thanks, Professor." said Dot, earnestly, yet still with her usual good cheer that Severus had come to know as a mask. A front. A coping mechanism.

Elizabeth swung her legs off the bed and stood, silent as ever. She crossed the room, walked right up to Severus, and stuck out her hand. She tried her best to smile. But it was her eye that showed the sincerity, that showed the warmth in full, and in a way that her face could not.

Severus shook her hand, and though his lips formed a horrid, thin smile in it's own attempt to convey what was inside of him, it was, as with Elizabeth, his eyes that expressed the truth of the soul behind them.

* * *

"Stop blushing."

"How could you tell? You weren't even looking at me."

Elizabeth DID look at Dot now, and what she found was exactly what she knew she would find.

"You're blushing." Elizabeth said, the barest trace of smugness coming into her voice.

"I can't help it." said Dot, blushing all the more and turning away. "It's just...cruel, to-"

"To what?" questioned Elizabeth, mock-innocently.

"To tease me about blushing when you-"

"You look really pretty today."

"-when you say things like that." Dot finished, hiding her face behind her hands.

"It was true a week ago, it's true now, and it will still be true a week from now." Elizabeth said firmly. "You. Look. Pretty. Deal with it."

Dot lowered her hands and stared back at Elizabeth, all blush.

"If you don't want to blush, abandon the crush." Elizabeth said in a singsong voice, knowing full well the affect it would have on her blond friend.

"Don't ask me to do the impossible..." Dot mumbled, toying with the hem of her skirt. "I've never seen YOU blush whenever I've told YOU that you look pretty." she added, almost mutinously.

"That's because I'm not pretty." Elizabeth said matter-of-factly.

"But you ARE." Dot said, her voice rising and adopting notes of desperation and insistence that Elizabeth detected as not ENTIRELY false. "On the inside AND on the outside. At least...to me."

"And you know why you see me that way." Elizabeth whispered, narrowing her eye as much as she could at her friend.

Dot shook her head, descending very suddenly into the same seriousness that Elizabeth had. "Not just because of that."

"Mostly." Elizabeth countered, tugging her left pant leg down as far as it would go without yanking the jeans down her body.

"Ok, mostly." Dot agreed. "But that doesn't mean that I don't see you how I do because of OTHER reasons. Like, because you ARE pretty, and because you ARE-"

"Elizabeth, Dot," came the voice of Mrs. Jones from just outside their room door. "Professor Snape's just arrived."

"We'll be out in a few seconds." Dot responded. She turned merry blue eyes on Elizabeth. "Putting away the jokes, you really do look pretty, you know."

"Thank you." Elizabeth said casually. Far too casually. There was a long moment in which Dot simply stared at her, scrutinized her with blue eyes that flickered with little flakes of hurt and disappointment. Elizabeth felt sharp pangs of regret, but...

"You're welcome." Dot said finally, with much more exuberance even than was her usual. "Now let's go get us some cats." she added, her smile widening so much her face looked about ready to split in half.

"And magic wands." Elizabeth reminded, excitement flushing through her body at the very thought. Though within that current of excitement was an anticipation that was more somber.

Dot, of course, saw this undercurrent of seriousness in her. And what was more, she understood it, and in a way that none but the two of them ever would.

Which was why Dot nodded, and said very quietly as they headed for the door, "Yeah. Them, too."

At the door, Elizabeth paused before opening it, her hand resting on the knob, and turned her eye to Dot. "Thank you for helping me to get him to do this for us." she said earnestly, hoping to do some damage control in the aftermath of what had been one of the most uncomfortable silences that had been had between the two of them in quite a while.

"It was important to you." Dot replied. "HE'S important to you."

"He is." 'Or rather, he will be,' Elizabeth amended silently.

"Do you think he's read the letters yet?"

Elizabeth pulled open the door, brushed her hair behind her ear nub, and gave Dot a smile. "Let's find out."

As one, they stepped out into the second floor landing and headed for the staircase.

Elizabeth kept her eyes downcast and her mouth shut as they navigated the orphanage. She would not look at the staff members they passed, would not see their violent flinching, would not meet their pitiful gazes, or see the way in which they averted THEIR eyes from HER.

The other children were worse, and it was them that Elizabeth most hated being around. She hated their anger, she hated their poor attempts to conceal their disgust, and most of all, their outright ridicule and insults.

It was them that made Elizabeth's throat close up, made her flesh and blood hand clench so tight that her nails drew blood from her palm, and caused her body to shake, as far too many emotions welled up inside of her.

Dot, of course, greeted every staff member with cheerfulness, and the other children with looks and words that were so intense and vulgar that, had she been anyone else, would have seen her disciplined severely.

Professor Snape was indeed waiting for Elizabeth and Dot when they arrived in the lobby, and, to Elizabeth's relief (or at least, to her slightly less anxiety and discomfort), there wasn't anyone else around besides Mrs. Jones.

Despite the calming effect the near-empty entrance hall was having on Elizabeth, she was still very much entertaining thoughts of turning tail and leaving. Going back up to her room and staying there. She had to struggle against these thoughts all the more when, upon laying her eye on Professor Snape, the events of the day ahead and all that was entailed, fully set in for her.

Fully hit her with the force of a falling wooden beam.

Elizabeth shut her eye tightly.

She couldn't actually do this, have this. This day ahead. A day- a day...

A day of being outside the orphanage, something she had not done in two years now. A day out in the world, around strangers, crowds, who were bound to be far, far more...painful, for Elizabeth to endure the company of compared to the staff and children around the orphanage.

Panic rose in her chest, and Elizabeth let out and took in very fast, very shallow breaths, now, suddenly, acutely aware of the world around her, as well as her own body.

Elizabeth stopped dead. Then she took a step backwards, away from Severus, away from the open doors of the orphanage, through which sunlight was streaming in, through which she could see cars passing, see people strolling up and down the sidewalks, and away from...

"Liz?" Dot's concerned voice came drifting into Elizabeth's right ear - the only ear that worked.

"Miss Potter, are you all right?" Professor Snape asked, sweeping toward her with a look of concern on his sallow face.

Elizabeth took two more steps back and looked down at her feet. One real, and one not so real. The panic inside of her was now clawing and squirming, and it wasn't alone, for now it was accompanied by fear and anguish, by frustration, rage...

"I want to go back to my room." she whispered, her tone pleading and desperate. "I can't do this."

A soft, warm hand was suddenly enveloping Elizabeth's, and then she was looking at Dot. At her soft face, at her brilliant blond hair, and at her reassuring smile, a smile that batted away at the panic, at the fear, at all that was whirling around inside of Elizabeth.

"You can do this." Dot said quietly, her blue eyes glittering, almost like crystals. "Want to know why? Because that's what you do; you fight, and you endure, and you survive. Years in an orphanage without being adopted, the fire that almost, should have, killed you, and then there was Voldemort. You saw that green light, the same light from your nightmares, and you...you're still here. You survived it all, I think you can survive a walk in the sun." she finished, giving Elizabeth's hand a firm squeeze.

Elizabeth closed her eye again, nodded, and started shoving down at all the emotions within her, stamping them out and pushing them into oblivion, Dot's words having given her the strength and resolve she needed.

"Thank you." Elizabeth spoke, once she had regained herself, squeezing Dot's hand in return, as well as in gratitude.

"You're welcome." Dot promptly supplied, reverting from intensity and seriousness to her usual cheery demeanor. "And besides," Dot added, with an airy hand wave at Professor Snape. "do you really think anybody is going to try and mess with you when we've got HIM with us?"

"Indeed." said Professor Snape, his tone quiet and serious, caring, yet also holding traces of amusement. "I can assure you, Miss Potter, that no one will be doing you any harm while you are in my care today. Nor will anyone give you any trouble at Hogwarts, student or staff. If anyone happens to be foolish enough to do so, I will ensure it will not happen a second time."

'Doubtful,' Elizabeth thought. 'Mrs. Jones has been trying to get the other children here to stop for years. So has Dot. Neither of them has had any luck so far.'

What she said aloud was simply, "Thank you, sir."

"It was no trouble." Professor Snape replied. "Now, if the both of you are ready, we will be off."

Elizabeth stood straighter, raised her chin just so, and let out a deep breath. She still had yet to release Dot's hand. Elizabeth had no intention of doing so.

"We're ready." Dot proclaimed.

Without further ado, Professor Snape turned, black robes billowing, and led the way out of the orphanage, with the two girls trailing behind him.

Lagging purposely behind the professor.

"You know it's the thought that counts." Dot said quietly, ever so acutely attuned to Elizabeth. "And you know I'll always have your back at Hogwarts, just like I do here."

As Elizabeth descended the steps to the courtyard, she made no reply. She didn't need to.

She knew, and Dot knew that she knew.

But would that knowledge be enough to see Elizabeth through the difficulties that she knew lay ahead for her in the magical world?


	3. Through Fire Is The Spirit Forged

"This," said Professor Snape, with a touch of disdain in his voice, "is the Leaky Cauldron."

Elizabeth was overcome by amusement, as Dot, upon hearing the name of the pub for the third time in the last hour, went into a renewed fit of giggles.

Snape raised an exasperated but patient eyebrow at Dot, and the blond girl quickly got control of herself.

"Before we enter," said Snape, locking suddenly serious dark eyes with Elizabeth. "there is something you should be made aware of."

Elizabeth stood waiting, silent and patient.

"You are a celebrity in the wizarding world, Miss Po- Elizabeth." Snape continued softly. "It is because of your defeat of the Dark Lord ten years ago. There isn't an adult in this world that does not know your name, and not a child that has not grown up hearing it. They call you 'The-Girl-Who-Lived.'"

Elizabeth took several long moments to let her feelings and thoughts run their course, all the while remaining motionless and expressionless.

Shock, awe, and horror. Fear and pressure. Wonderings about just how the world was going to react to her as she was now, and how they would react to the knowledge that she had in fact survived the Dark Lord twice.

The most prominent of all her feelings was the horror, however.

She was famous, and not just a little. She was a household name!

Snape might as well have given her a death sentence.

Elizabeth hated being a caged animal in a zoo enough as it was, but NOW the zoo was expanding its clientele worldwide?

Was she doomed to go through her life being hounded, clawed at, mobbed, the object of everything she had endured at the orphanage, but kicked up to eleven?

She felt sick.

"Do you understand this?" Snape asked of her quietly.

"Yes, sir." Elizabeth whispered, lowering her gaze to her own body. To the plastic arm that hung there, and further down, to the (very obviously alongside her real leg) fake bit of her prosthetic leg that was exposed in the break between pants leg and shoe.

That was to be her future in the magical world, she thought. Exposed.

But...but Elizabeth could take it. She would have to. She needed to be in this world, she needed what it offered her. She WANTED what it offered her - and she wasn't going to let a few more people gawking at her stop her from getting what she wanted.

"Little do they know, you're 'The-Girl-Who-Lived-Twice.'" said Dot, catching Elizabeth's eye and grinning.

Elizabeth managed to give her friend a small smile in return. "I'm not going to enlighten them."

"Then I won't, either." Dot assured.

"That is, of course, entirely your choice." Snape said lightly to Elizabeth. "Now, come."

The inside of the Leaky Cauldron did not surprise Elizabeth. It was dark, cool, and-

Crowded. So very, very crowded. A full house.

Fortunately for Elizabeth (who could feel the beginnings of panic coming back to her in the face of so many people up close and personal) Snape struck up an unrelenting pace for a door at the back of the pub - not to mention that Snape's very presence prompted the denizens of the pub to suddenly become MUCH more interested in their own business.

But Snape's brisk walk was also unfortunate, because, after several hours now of walking, Elizabeth's ill-fitted prosthetic leg started to give her pains.

Nevertheless, she kept her head down, and kept going, crossing both her prosthetic and her real arm over her chest, as if she could physically contain the panic that was trying to claw its way out of her.

Elizabeth stole a glance at Dot on her left, then refocused her eye on the door ahead.

They were half-way across the pub now, but that door might as well have been a million miles away.

It was like that dream where you were running down a corridor, but the door at the end kept getting farther and farther away.

Elizabeth was far too keenly aware of all those eyes sneaking peeks at her and Dot, at all those faces surrounding her, all those-

"G-good e-evening S-S-Severus." came a timid, stuttering little voice.

Suddenly, almost as if out of nowhere, a pale man had stepped into Snape's path.

Elizabeth froze, and ducked her head all the more - so much so that her chin was touching her chest - and her long, dark red hair spilled down around her, hiding her as surely as any curtain.

"D-didn't e-expect you to b-be here today." said the stuttering voice.

"Quirrell." Snape greeted, and in the utterance of that name Elizabeth heard a startling amount of annoyance. Annoyance, she noted, that was laced with a great deal of disgust and animosity.

"Wh-who've you g-got with y-you?" Quirrell stammered, with unbridled curiousity. "It's n-not l-like you to t-travel with c-children, S-severus."

"They are students." Snape gritted. "Students who I am accompanying to help them to collect their school things, so as you can imagine, we are rather pressed for time, so if you would kindly get out of the way..."

"Professor Snape?" spoke a new voice. "This is an unexpected visit, but a pleasure, of course. And who are the lasses you've got here with you?"

Dot, unlike Elizabeth, was in her element. "I'm Dot, but you can just call me Dot. Nice to meet you, Mr..."

Elizabeth heard a great sigh from Snape.

"This is Professor Quirrell." Snape said slowly. "He will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. And this is Tom, the bartender here at the Lea- at this pub!" he amended hastily, and Elizabeth saw in her mind's eye the professor throwing Dot a look that bordered on panicked.

"And this is...?" Tom the bartender trailed off, referring to Elizabeth.

Before Snape could answer, before anyone could say anything else, Elizabeth, coming to a decision, steeled herself, and raised her head.

"My name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth Potter." she said firmly, looking the bartender in the eye.

And there it was, that widening of the eyes, that weakening of the muscles, that flashing of pity and horror...

"Dear merlin." Tom breathed. "Miss Potter...?"

Elizabeth held his gaze for a moment longer, then looked at Quirrell, who had gone paler than usual. She also got her first good look at the man - or, more accurately, at the ridiculously large purple turbin on his head.

"P-P-Potter," stammered Quirrell, clutching his hands to his chest. "C-can't t-tell you h-how p-pleased I am to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too." Elizabeth replied, crushing her discomfort as ruthlessly as she had crushed her terror once - no, so many times - before.

Dot had been right, back at the orphanage. Elizabeth survived, she endured. That was who she was, who she had always been, and Dot had always believed in that.

It was time Elizabeth started believing in it, too.

"So, you teach Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Elizabeth inquired of Professor Quirrell, doing her best to smile.

"N-not that y-you n-need it, eh, Potter?" Quirrell laughed nervously, his eyes flashing with...something. Had that been...fear?

No, surely not. What reason would a Professor have to be afraid of Elizabeth?

 _Plenty of reasons_ , a little voice said in Elizabeth's mind. _With fame comes infamy. Not everyone will like you, especially not if you got rid of the greatest and most feared Dark Wizard of all time. And that Dark Wizard had, and probably still did have, a lot of supporters..._

Elizabeth came out of her pondering to realize that the Leaky Cauldron was completely still and silent - and that all eyes were on her.

"Bless my soul..." a man whispered. "Elizabeth Potter, it really is you, returned to us at last."

There was a great scraping of chairs, and then Elizabeth found herself surrounded by everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Welcome back, Ms. Potter, welcome back."

"Doris Crockford, Ms. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"So proud, Ms. Potter, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand, I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Ms. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."

They were pressing around her, hands were seizing hers, words were whirling and buffeting her. So much, all at once, all around her, and Elizabeth's panic was full blown. It was all a blur, and she was starting to feel sick again, feeling like she couldn't breath, feeling trapped, trapped and surrounded by danger, by-

"STOOOOOOOOOOP!"

Everyone around Elizabeth suddenly found themselves flying backwards, the fireplace and the lamps were all extinguished, the plates and bowls shattered, the silverware melted into liquid, the tables cracked in half, the chairs imploded, chair legs shooting off in all directions like spears, only to splinter on impact, and entire foundation itself shook and shivered, loosing thick clouds of dust.

And then it was over, and all that remained was silence, and darkness.

And the gasping and retching of Elizabeth, down on her hands and knees, in the aftermath of her scream.

A shaken-sounding Snape muttered "Lumos.", and then a bright, white light filled the pub - a light that originated from the tip of Snape's wand, Elizabeth saw, and she made a note to remember the word. The spell.

"Up you get." Snape murmured, gently grasping Elizabeth under her arm and pulling her to her feet. "It would be best to leave now..."

"I'll say." Dot laughed, though it was a shaky laugh. In the light from Snape's wand, Elizabeth could see the...not fear, but...wariness, in Dot's eyes. In all their time together, throughout all of Elizabeth's incidents of accidental magic, both before and after the fire, Elizabeth had never lost control of herself so severely. Had never caused so much damage.

"Did I hurt you?" Elizabeth croaked, looking Dot over intently, and taking her friend's hand into her trembling own. Though it wasn't just Elizabeth's HAND that was trembling. She was shaking all over.

"I'm the only one you DIDN'T hurt." Dot assured, smiling. "Besides him." she added, nodding at Snape.

"I'm sorry." Elizabeth said loudly, to Snape, and to the entire pub.

"Do not worry about it." Snape said, both firmly and softly, somehow. He herded the girls out the back door and into a sun-lit alley, gave a brief instruction to them to wait there, then he disappeared back into the pub.

Elizabeth fell against the brick wall, and slumped to the ground. Dot joined her. "I-"

"Don't say you didn't mean to do it, 'cause we both know you did." said Dot fiercely, shaking her head. "And they deserved it, all of it. Them and their filthy pub. They were being...uh, what's a word for people who act...how they did?"

"I don't think there is a word for it." Elizabeth sighed. "But you're right. I meant to do it. I meant to hurt them."

"You meant to make them back off." Dot corrected, laying a hand on Elizabeth's knee. "And you did. I haven't seen you do anything that brave since-"

"Don't."

"-since you saved me!" Dot persisted, her blue eyes shining with adoration. "And that's nothing to deny. What you did back there isn't something to deny either! You just- you fought, you stood up, you-"

"No!" Elizabeth said sharply. "I wasn't brave THAT NIGHT, and I wasn't BRAVE in THERE. I was AFRAID, I was SICK, and I was-"

"You were STRONG." Dot countered. "You were brave and you were incredible, and you were RIGHT. Both times."

"Just the first." Elizabeth attempted to compromise.

"Both." Dot said firmly. "Being brave isn't NOT being scared peeless, it's being scared peeless and fighting back anyways. You're made of IRON, Liz, you just- you don't seem to want to see it for some reason. You don't want to BE IT. Enough's enough, okay? It's time to stop keeping your head down, time to stop staying quiet. Start screaming, start pushing and clawing, and start showing on the outside that steel will that we both know is inside you."

"I did." Elizabeth stated. "Back there, I did. I faced Professor Quirrell and the bartender with my chin up, and I made everyone back off."

"But you withdrew." argued Dot. "You let it slip away again. I can't see it now, Liz, looking at you right now, I can't see it. Not in the way you're holding yourself, not in the way you're talking. You're not meek inside, you're not quiet inside. Why do you not want to show that for more than just short little moments - or when we're alone?"

The response, "I could ask you the same thing. _"_ was on the tip of Elizabeth's tongue. But she didn't say that. Dot didn't deserve insults, didn't deserve deflections. She deserved Elizabeth's honesty and sincerity.

So, after a long moment of silence, and a long moment of pondering, Elizabeth said finally, "I think I'm scared."

Dot's grip on Elizabeth's knee tightened just so. "Scared of what?"

"You saw me before the fire." Elizabeth said slowly. "Around the orphanage. You know what kind of girl I was. You know WHO I was. And I lost it all. I lost those friends, I lost that bold voice, I lost..."

"You lost that girl." Dot ventured gently.

"Yeah." Elizabeth looked at Dot's hand on her knee, and lay her own hand over top it. "I lost that girl. I'm afraid that if I let her come out again, that if she comes back that- that...that something or someone might- might crush her, might destroy her again. I'm so afraid to be who I was again because- because if I do I might LOSE who I was all over again. And it was so, so hard to have been broken and to have had to pick up the pieces the first time that I don't know if, if it were to happen again, I'd be able to do it a second time."

Dot's hand turned over, and her fingers closed around Elizabeth's. "You had me the first time, and you'd have me a second time."

Elizabeth nodded and returned the favor, gripping Dot's hand tight. "I don't know who I am without you."

Dot just shook her head. "You know who you were, who you still are inside. Be her, fully and completely. And know that I'll never you let you fall, know that I'll stand up for you forever, and know that I'll be here for you through it all, even if it sends me to heaven. So just be who you really are, and don't let it slip away again. Not again. _Never_ again, after today, okay?"

"Never again." Elizabeth promised, her voice firm and not at all quiet. Promised herself as much as Dot.

From here on out, Elizabeth was NOT going to let fear stop her, control her, rule her.

That was why Elizabeth did what she did next. She kissed Dot on the cheek.

"What the- what was THAT?" Dot sounded more shocked than anything else, more so than pleased or embarrassed, and that made Elizabeth laugh.

"That was me taking your advice to heart, and thanking you for it in the first place." Elizabeth replied, part teasing, part serious.

Dot's hand found the spot on her cheek where Elizabeth had kissed it, and then both her cheeks started to go pink. "Oh, well...you're welcome, then."

"So are you." Elizabeth said, grinning brazenly.

Dot's blush intensified, but her eyes were all but sparkling.

"I want you to promise ME something now." Elizabeth spoke suddenly, turning slightly to face Dot and gripping her hand all the more tightly.

Dot nodded seriously. "What is it?"

"Don't go to heaven for me."

"You did for me."

Just as Elizabeth was opening her mouth to respond with a counterargument, the back door of the Leaky Cauldron swung open, and Snape came striding out into the alley.

"Are we ready to go, sir?" Elizabeth asked, getting to her feet.

Snape regarded her for a moment, his eyes curious, seeing the change in her stance, and hearing the alterations in the volume and tone of her voice, but he made no comment on it.

"Yes, we are." he answered, sweeping over to the brick wall and raising his wand.

"What were you doing in there that took so long?" asked Dot.

"Repairing the damages." Snape replied, not turning, a touch of amusement in his voice as he started tapping the bricks in a specific order with his wand.

Once finished with the sequence, Snape gave the brick wall three taps with his wand, and then the bricks began to wiggle and move. A small hole appeared in the center of the wall. It expanded, growing and growing until there was no longer a wall, but an archway, an archway through which could be seen a very packed, very wide, winding, cobbled street.

The girls stared in amazement.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley." smirked Snape. "There is a magical-creature shop, Magical Menagerie, just down the alley, which I will be taking the two of you to after we visit the wizard bank, Gringotts - and yes, the shop does have cats."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Dot demanded, before all but throwing herself through the archway.

Smiling to herself, Elizabeth followed her friend through the archway at a leisurely walk.

* * *

"Potter, Elizabeth!"

As whispers and gasps broke out like little fires all over the hall, Elizabeth stepped up to be sorted.

But not...just...yet.

Upon reaching the sorting stool, Elizabeth turned right around and stood there, stood tall, shoulders squared, chin raised, her gaze sweeping over the entire hall and all who occupied it.

All who stared at her, with so many various expressions and emotions playing over their faces.

She stared right back.

At the front of the gaggle of first years, Dot's lips held a smile, and her blue eyes were shining with something akin to pride. She gave Elizabeth a not-at-all-discreet thumbs-up.

"Hi there." Elizabeth began, her voice loud and clear, strong and firm. "I'm the Girl-Who-Lived. Twice, actually. All of this," she gestured down at herself. "is the result of Voldemort,"-a ripple of gasps and shrieks rolled across the hall-"having made a second attempt on my life two years ago. But, for a second time, I defeated him."

The hall was dead silent. Even the Professors at the high table were unmoving - and completely enraptured.

"Ten years ago, in a day, I was stained with a role not my own." Elizabeth continued on, her voice ringing true. "It wasn't my choice, it wasn't my desire, and I didn't even know about it until recently, but trust me when I say to you all now that I intend to fulfill that role. The role of the Girl-Who-Lived. Your savior, your heroine, your champion. Your...Lady of the Light, if you will. If Voldemort, or any of his followers and supporters, wants to try their hand at ending my life, I say this: come and get me, because I've survived the killing curse twice now, and the third time's NOT going to be the charm."

All eyes continued to be on her, and for once, it was NOT because of her injuries.

"On the other hand, to Voldemort's followers and supporters," Elizabeth went on, her voice carefully measured and slow now. "I give you this to consider: I've broken your master twice now within a decade. Do you want to make the mistake of putting your faith in him again? In giving such a WRECK of a wizard your loyalty, when all you'll get is death or imprisonment? Or to those who've managed to avoid going to prison; do you want to risk the lives you have now, the families you have now, to return to the servitude of such a failure of a man?"

Elizabeth shut her her eye for a brief moment, and exhaled.

"I'm not asking you for your loyalty to me, I'm not asking for your service, or for your faith and devotion. All I'm saying is that if you value the much better lives you've had so far in Voldemort's absence, if you don't want to go back to him, and if you don't want to be down on your hands and knees at his weak and pathetic feet ever again, then I will do all in my power to protect you and your families from him, and to ensure that you keep those lives that you've so come to love."

"But I also issue this warning: if any of you decides to rejoin him, if any of you tries to find and aid him, or if any of you just has a relapse and starts hurting and killing people again - or maybe you never stopped - and I find out about it, I will not hesitate to break you, and I'll do it just as easily as I broke him. Both times."

"Take either the invitation, or the warning to heart." Elizabeth finished quietly. "The choice is yours."

With that, Elizabeth sat on the stool, took the sorting hat from a very still, very silent McGonagall, and delicately placed the hat on her head.

"Well now, that was the most interesting thing I have ever heard come out of a first year's mouth on her first night here, and I've been sorting students for hundreds of years now." said a small, amused, but also impressed voice in Elizabeth's ear. "Did you come up with that remarkable speech all on your own?"

Elizabeth sent Dot a smile from under the hat's brim. "As a matter of fact, I had a lot of help..."

* * *

 _"...maybe fame_ _doesn't have to be fear." Elizabeth spoke, idly petting her orange and white, male tabby cat, whom she had named Tails immediately upon buying him from Magical Menagerie just a few hours earlier. "Maybe it doesn't have to be discomfort and pressure, negative and hindering."_

 _Dot bundled up her grey bangled cat, who, to the annoyance of Snape (or perhaps TO annoy Snape), she had named Sev, and rose from the study desk in their room and swiftly joined Elizabeth on the bed._

 _"And?" Dot prompted, settling down._

 _"I am the Girl-Who-Lived." Elizabeth went on slowly. "As surely as I'm strong and brave, and all the things you've always believed and accepted me to be, all the things you've gotten me to believe in and accept about myself; Elizabeth. Fighter. Survivor. Witch. The Girl-Who-Lived. It's just another part of who I am, and I should embrace that part as much as I have the rest."_

 _"That's good." said Dot. "That's really good."_

 _"It is good." Elizabeth agreed. "But it will also be more than a little bad."_

 _"Blow up another pub or two, and I'm sure your fanatical fans will think twice before swarming you." Dot said, entirely serious._

 _"That would be just one danger in embracing my fame."_

 _"Blowing up a pub, or dealing with all your crazy fans?"_

 _Elizabeth smiled. "The second one."_

* * *

 _"Voldemort's not dead." Elizabeth stated, raising her eye from the pages of her recent wizarding history book to meet the eyes of Dot. "Two years ago, all we did was make him retreat, go back into hiding, just like what happened on that night TEN years ago. Which means that, hopefully not soon, he's going to make a comeback."_

 _"It's a scary thought." Dot replied, giving a slight nod._

 _"Right." said Elizabeth. "But what if we could prevent, or at least delay, the aforementioned comeback on his part? What if we could take away his alternatives, limit his options?"_

 _"Okay," Dot said slowly. "I follow you so far, but...How would we do that?"_

 _"Think, what do all villains need?"_

 _"A secret lair?"_

 _"Well, yes, that." Elizabeth admitted, smiling slightly. "But, no. They need henchmen, minions. Without minions, a villain is severely hindered. So what if we take away Voldemort's minions?"_

 _"I hate to be a broken record here, but how would we do that?"_

 _Elizabeth bit her lip and glanced out the window, through which a late August breeze was flowing into the bedroom._

 _"By embracing every aspect of who I am." she said thoughtfully._

* * *

 ** _Dear Professor Snape,_**

 ** _I was reading through some of those history books I bought in Diagon Alley last month, and I came across something I was hoping you could give me some more information about._**

 ** _I would like to know anything you can tell me about Voldemort's followers, the band of criminals called the "Death Eaters", that isn't in the history books._**

 ** _I feel like there's a lot missing here._**

 ** _Yours truly, Elizabeth Dianne Potter_**

 _"Is the letter finished?" asked Dot, looking up from her potions textbook, a subject she had taken a very keen interest in over the past few weeks._

 _"Just finished." Elizabeth assured. "Now I just have to hope it reaches the wizards and witches working in the post office, and that they'll deliver it to Snape."_

* * *

 _"Oooh, owl!"_

 _"Down, girl." Elizabeth said quickly to Dot, dashing past her friend to retrieve the letter from the leg of the brown owl that had just flown in through the open window._

 _"I think not." Dot proclaimed. "Because, one, this owl is really, really cute, and two, you can't open that letter without me."_

 _"I have teeth." said Elizabeth pointedly._

 _"Granted. But teeth won't get the letter off the owl, which you kind of have to do before you can open it."_

 _"Fine. Point taken." Elizabeth sighed, throwing up her hand and stepping away from the owl._

 _"And taken gladly." Dot laughed as she untied the letter from the owl's leg._

 _"Don't be so certain." muttered Elizabeth, though she was trying hard not to smile. "So what does it say?" she said, once Dot had finished perusing the letter._

 _Dot shrugged and offered Elizabeth the letter with a vivacious hand._

 _"A lot of things I didn't understand." Dot admitted, not sounding the least bit upset. Probably because, A, she knew Elizabeth would explain it all later, and B, because she had begun to occupy herself with stroking the owl while Elizabeth read the letter._

 _Elizabeth, on the other hand, found that she understood the letter's contents perfectly, and that it contained information that would be vital to the success of her plan._

* * *

 _A floor-shaking thud filled the compartment aboard the Hogwarts Express, as Dot unceremoniously dropped her trunk before slamming the compartment door shut and collapsing into the seat next to Elizabeth._

 _"The first spell I'm going to learn," Dot said breathlessly. "is that weightlessness spell I saw in- in whatever spellbook of yours it was that I saw it in a few weeks ago."_

 _Elizabeth rummaged through her trunk, sifted through the three, additional, advanced spellbooks she had bought in Diagon Alley along with her first year spellbook, and dutifully emerged with the spellbook in question and held it up for Dot. "It's in this one."_

 _"Great!" Dot exclaimed, swiping the book from Elizabeth and drawing her wand, which she gave a very long, loving look. "Can you believe there's an ACTUAL unicorn hair in this thing?"_

 _"Only if you can believe there's a phoenix feather in mine." said Elizabeth, withdrawing her own, holly wand and giving it a look that was similar to the look that Dot had given her willow wand (though far less intense)._

 _"Weightlessness spell...weightlessness spell..." Dot murmured, flipping through spellbook pages rapidly._

 _Elizabeth, too, opened up one of her spellbooks, and started scanning the pages. "I'm going to start with learning spells we might actually need."_

 _"I need the weightlessness spell." Dot huffed._

 _"I'm going to start with learning spells we might need if Voldemort, or any Death Eaters, come after us." Elizabeth amended, with a shake of her head._

 _"If you were to cast the weightlessness spell on Voldemort, you could then punch him in the nose and knock him on his butt." Dot said smugly._

 _"I don't know whether or not that's just you thinking outside the box, or you being disturbingly creative." Elizabeth laughed._

 _"Either way, you should take it to heart. It might save your life one day." Dot joked._

 _"So could this...Lumos!" Elizabeth cried. The tip of her wand lit up like the sun, and she had to shut her eye and turn away, even in the light of day. Even then, when Elizabeth opened her eye after the light had faded, there was an afterimage burned into her retina._

 _"Wow. That actually COULD save you." Dot said with delight, blinking rapidly in the wake of the spell. "And beyond spells, so could a lot of potions." she added. "Take the strengthening solution, for example..."_

* * *

 _"Hey, Liz..."_

 _"What?" Elizabeth lifted her head off Dot's shoulder and stared blearily around the train compartment, which, now, with the day's train ride having slipped into the dark of night, was lit only by the light coming from the tip of Dot's wand._

 _"Sorry to wake you." Dot said quietly, and Elizabeth saw the blush coming to her cheeks in the wandlight._

 _Elizabeth smiled softly._

 _"Never mind that." she said. "What is it?"_

 _Dot gestured at the pages in the spellbook she was reading with the lit tip of her wand._

 _"What am I supposed to be looking for?" Elizabeth frowned. Dot indicated a very specific paragraph with her index finger, and then Elizabeth understood just why her friend had woken her._

 _"A healing spell." Elizabeth said softly, feeling a sudden rush of far too many emotions for her to handle._

 _"Yeah." Dot said, voice just a soft. "See here, it says that damage by dark magic can't be repaired, at least not in most cases, not much, but..."_

 _"But the fire was just a fire." Elizabeth finished, after a long silence, knowing very well what her friend was getting at._

 _"Exactly. It didn't occur to me until now, reading this, but- but can you imagine what they can fix with magic?"_

 _"You think they can fix me?" Elizabeth spoke carefully._

 _"If they could, would you let them?" said Dot, her blue eyes glowing in the wandlight._

 _Elizabeth looked away, turned from the light, and in the darkness tears fell from her eye. Dot's question should have elicited such a simple, obvious answer from her: yes. She wanted to say yes._

 _The hurt, childish part of her wanted to say yes. Wanted to no longer be looked upon as something disgusting, as something to be spited, or pitied, or avoided. Wanted to again feel the limbs and organs she had lost, rather than the fleeting phantoms she was given to feel every so often. Wanted to not be in pain when she walked, wanted to be pretty, pretty and beautiful and WANTED again._

 _But the hard, the mature, the jaded, post-fire part of her didn't CARE about being PRETTY anymore, didn't CARE about being desired by all, because THAT part of her had Dot, THAT part of her could withstand so much, so much trouble, so much pain, and that part of her was PROUD and PLEASED to have adapted and survived despite the losses, and that part of her was adamant that IT DIDN'T NEED TO BE FIXED because it was an IMPROVEMENT over the child, over the sensitive, and the selfishness that had so fooled itself, time and time again, that it was selfless._

 _That part of her wanted to say no._

 _'A decision doesn't have to be made yet.' Elizabeth attempted to mediate between the two parts of herself._

 _While the two parts of her agreed that a decision did not have to be made YET, they also agreed that a decision would have to be made SOON._

* * *

"I see..." said the sorting hat, all contemplation.

"Yeah. Now you see." Elizabeth said lightly. "Can you sort me now, please?"

"Impatience from a girl who spent an entire month planning for and working towards this one, single night?" the hat responded, brimming with amusement.

Silence.

"Sort me at your own pace." sighed Elizabeth, returning her attentions to Dot.

"And I shall." said the hat. "I shall...Now, let's see here...plenty of courage, of course...quite a good mind you have, might do you good in...then again, you obviously, unquestioningly have an abundance of cunning, as you do with courage...hmmm...difficult, very difficult..."

"Put me where I would have the most success." Elizabeth said quietly.

"That is my job, Miss Potter." the hat chuckled. "But that is also the issue at hand. I can foresee your being MOST successful in any of the four Houses...Hmmm, why don't you decide which House you want to go to?"

"Okay." Elizabeth nodded. "Well, if Dot had been sorted already, I would honestly, probably have just asked you to put me with her, but since that's not the case...I choose Slytherin."

"You still choose the familiar." the hat said thoughtfully. "You couldn't choose to be with your friend, so you chose instead to be with Severus Snape."

Elizabeth just shrugged. "Well, you know what they say: when in doubt, stick with what you know."

"It's not too late to change your mind and go for Ravenclaw, you know..."

"Slytherin." Elizabeth said firmly.

"All right, then. I wish you the best of luck in...SLYTHERIN!"

This last word was shouted for all the hall to hear, though if anyone DID hear the pronouncement, Elizabeth couldn't tell.

The hall was either STILL in dead, silent shock over her speech, OR the fact that she had been sorted into Slytherin was an equally as shocking event as a first year giving a speech.

Elizabeth was betting on the latter being the case. Nonetheless, she did what she did best: she endured.

She swept the hat off her head, placed it on the stool, and went right up to Dot - who, apart from Snape, was the only one clapping (though the former was clapping FAR more enthusiastically than the latter) - and hugged her.

"Congratulations." Dot beamed at Elizabeth.

"Go Slytherin or go home." Elizabeth said flatly, before resolutely pulling away and marching off for the Slytherin table. A glance back over her shoulder revealed to Elizabeth that she had not fooled Dot for even a millisecond.

Dot was shaking her pretty blond head and clutching at her sides, deep in the throes of pure mirth.

As soon as Elizabeth crossed inside of five feet of the Slytherin table, all her Housemates suddenly came back to life, their eyes snapping to her like magnets, and then they broke into applause.

Very, very, very loud applause.

They were all grinning and smiling at her, cheering for her, and two other first year girls who had been sorted before Elizabeth (Tracy Davis and Millicent Bullstrode) made a space for her between them, and as soon as Elizabeth sat down, she was being patted on the back.

While this wasn't exactly to Elizabeth's liking - in fact, it was uncomfortable and panic-inducing - and while she did not miss those few eyes here and there, among the sea of Slytherins, that were looking upon her with loathing and with fear (though these looks had nothing at all to do with her disfigurements...), it WAS to her BENEFIT, and so she did her best to accept it all, to embrace her reception, all the while noting the faces that went along with the eyes that seemed to not at all like the fact that Elizabeth Potter had become a Slytherin.

Over at the Gryffindor table, two, twin, redheaded third year boys were looking dumbfounded.

"We didn't get Potter...?" they chorused.


	4. Man's Progression, Child's Regression

On and on the sorting went; Thomas, Dean", Turpin, Lisa , "Weasley, Ronald", until, finally, the name was called that Elizabeth had been waiting for since her own sorting.

"Dot?" called Professor McGonagall, eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment, a small frown forming on her lips.

"That would be me." Dot spoke up, raising her hand like she was in class.

"You're..." Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow, still looking thoroughly perplexed. Not many people in the world were without a last name.

"Dot, co-savior of wizardkind." Dot supplied cheerfully as she moved forward and took her place on the stool. Heedless of all the strange looks and mutterings, when the sorting hat was placed on her head, Dot began idly kicking her feet and humming to herself.

Elizabeth couldn't help but smile when she recognized the tune. It was just so typically, oh so ironically Dot.

After nearly a minute had passed, the hat finally shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table erupted into the greatest of applauses at gaining a new addition, though Elizabeth was the last person in the hall to stop clapping.

Four more people were sorted after Dot, and then the sorting ceremony was over, and Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the sorting hat away.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

Welcome, he said. Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Elizabeth laughed, and began to pile her plate with little bits and pieces of the foodstuff that had miraculously and suddenly appeared on golden platters all along the table.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle,  
strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding...

Now, so far, no one had dared to speak even a word to Elizabeth directly (though they had very much dared to send her looks of awe and reverance), but as she was nibbling her way through a strawberry, that suddenly changed.

"Elizabeth?" said Millicent Bullstrode tentatively, a rather large, dark-haired girl sitting directly on Elizabeth's right.

"Hi." Elizabeth responded, smiling slightly. "Strawberry?"

A crease appeared between Millicent's eyebrows. "My name is Millicent."

The many eavesdropping Slytherins around them (and there were so MANY, all wanting to hear what the Girl-Who-Lived had to say, up close and personal) laughed, and Millicent blushed.

Elizabeth did not laugh, and she turned a cold, one-eyed glare on those who had laughed at Millicent.

The offenders shut up VERY quickly.

"I meant, do you want a strawberry?" Elizabeth clarified, returning her attention to, and offering a strawberry to, Millicent. The dark-haired girl stared, then nodded, and reached out to take the petite fruit with a slightly trembling hand.

"Thanks." Millicent said quietly, after having taken a very delicate bite of strawberry, as if the fruit were a gift given to her by a...well, by a person who had literally saved the world.

"You know, I like how you're looking at me."  
said Elizabeth, smiling at Millicent, and causing the girl to startle and, again, blush.

"Yeah, well, you're not as bad to look at as HIM." mumbled Millicent, nodding down the table.

Elizabeth followed her gaze, and found herself smiling ever wider at what she beheld. Hovering near a fifth year student was a ghost, a man, faded and translucent. He was paler even than the other ghosts, his face was gaunt, his sunken eyes stared blankly, and his robes were stained with silver blood.

But the most striking feature, at least to Elizabeth, were the shackles and chains that the ghost had around his wrists.

Now, Elizabeth was pretty sure...no, she KNEW from the way the others at the table kept shooting fearful and uneasy looks at the ghost, from the way they were all scooted away from the ghost as far as they could manage, that this ghost was feared, that the way he presented himself, whether by intention or not, with his blank gaze and total stillness, was a bearing of terror.

And yet, what everyone else saw in those eyes...Elizabeth did not. She saw things that were entirely different - and all too familiar to her, for she saw such things in her own eye every time she looked in the mirror, and in Dot's eyes, in those times when they were alone, when they allowed each other to see what was truly held within their souls.

What Elizabeth saw in the eyes of the ghost was not malice, and was not some sort of listlessness, some void of all emotion. It was so much, so intense, that she could hardly stand to look, and yet she could not possibly have brought herself to STOP looking.

It was remorse. Regret, bitterness, and a sorrow so deep that Elizabeth's heart felt as if it were being squeezed just from observing it, and she felt tears welling up in her eye in response.

"Who is he?" she asked softly of Millicent, not looking away from the ghost for even a second.

"He's Slytherin House's ghost." came Millicent's reply. "He's called the Bloody Baron. My sister told me about him...Are you okay?"

Elizabeth could not have answered Millicent even if she had wanted to, because, right then, the Bloody Baron turned his head, and made eye contact with her.

The Baron's gaze was...curious.  
Curious and thoughtful, with perhaps a tinge of respect and...warmth?

Elizabeth let a small, watery smile overtake her lips, and she gave the Bloody Baron a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Yes, they were one and the same, in so many ways, and they both knew it. They both could look beyond, beneath, the appearance that inspired fear, and so many other emotions in others, and read what was contained within the soul of the other.

The Baron gave her a nod and a tilted smile in return, but he did not float his way over to her, and nor did Elizabeth rise from her seat and walk over to him.

They both knew, they both acknowledged, and that, for them, for now, for first sight, was connection enough made.

"I'm fine." Elizabeth sighed happily, wiping away her tears and finally turning again to Millicent. "I'm just fine, thanks."

"I know this place is big and wonderful," spoke a pale, skinny first year girl across the table from Elizabeth (Daphne Greengrass, Elizabeth recalled from the girl's sorting), her voice holding exasperation as well as amusement. "but...tears of joy? Do you live in a trash can?"

"An orphanage, actually." Elizabeth said easily, amused herself, and happy that at least SOMEONE - other than Millicent - wasn't afraid to even say two words to her (maybe she should have held off on the speech a few years...)

"You say that like there's a difference." Daphne snorted, flicking her whitish-blond ponytail over her shoulder oh so casually.

"How could You-Know-Who find you in a trash can?"  
said Millicent, confusion written all over her face. She flushed when everyone in the vicinity turned either irritated, amused, or exasperated looks on her (or, in the cases of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson; disgusting sneers).

"There are so MANY trash cans in the world, how could he have known which one was yours?" Tracy Davis, a yellow-haired girl, said slyly on Elizabeth's left.

"I don't live in a trash can, okay?!" Elizabeth burst out, fighting back more than a few giggles.

Millicent gave a still-confused smile, but nodded and said, "Okay."

"Orphanage." Elizabeth enunciated, slowly and clearly, for the benefit of all those around her.

"  
Did you mean everything you said up there? Before your sorting?" asked Daphne suddenly, shooting very wary looks over at Malfoy and Pansy, as well as at a nearby boy Elizabeth knew was called Blaise.

"Every word." Elizabeth nodded. "Why?"

Daphne alternated between throwing more looks Draco's way, and looking upon Elizabeth with a mixture of that quickly-becoming-familiar reverance, and hope.

"You're really going to protect us?" Daphne said, leaning forward to peer into Elizabeth's eye with a shocking intensity. "To save us all again?"

"I'll do my best." said Elizabeth, not looking away.

"My father was killed trying to leave You-Know-Who's service a few days before you...you know, ten years ago." Daphne said quickly, as if afraid that Elizabeth would turn her away if she did not say what she wanted to fast enough. "My mother and I...the Death Eaters, and HIM, they're sure to want revenge, to use US to- to make an example..." Daphne trailed off into silence as Elizabeth leaned across the table and took her hand, much to Daphne's shock.

"I understand." Elizabeth said softly. And she did. Snape's response to the letter she had sent in the summer asking for any and all information about the Death Eaters had been very long, very detailed, and not at all censored or edited for Elizabeth's child eye - exactly as Elizabeth had requested in her letter to him.

She knew their tactics, she knew their names, and she knew (or at least, she had a very good idea based on Snape's information) which Death Eaters were truly repentant, had truly left Voldemort's service, and which were not.

Elizabeth tightened her grip on Daphne's hand, her green eye boring into the girl's blue - a blue very similar in shade to Dot's.  
"Tell your mother that the two of you will have nothing to fear come Voldemort's return, and the return of his Death Eaters to his service. And tell her who the message is from. Tell her it's from the Girl-Who-Lived. And tell her everything that I said in my speech, tell her all about it."

"That's exactly what you want." Daphne said quietly. She gestured around the hall rather extravagantly. "You knew every person in this hall would scramble to write letters back to their families, detailing every little thing you said up there. You knew it would reach the people it needed to reach."

Elizabeth just smiled.

"I'll tell her." Daphne nodded, daring to give Elizabeth's hand a small squeeze. "The message, and the speech. And it was a good one. How long did you have to practice in front of a mirror to get it down?"

"Longer than you could ever guess." Elizabeth laughed, withdrawing her hand and sitting back in her seat, turning her gaze up to the High Table for the first time.

Hagrid, the gentle giant who had taken Elizabeth and the other first years across the lake, was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall, her lips pressed together, was deep in what seemed to be very serious conversation with Professor Dumbledore, and Elizabeth noticed Professor McGonagall glancing her way more than once. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to Professor Snape, though their conversation seemed far less serious in nature than Dumbledore and McGonagall's.

Suddenly, as if Snape knew Elizabeth was looking at him, he looked past Quirrell, and straight into her eye.

Elizabeth smiled at Snape, and he returned it rather twistedly, and she saw in his eyes that he looked...very troubled. Worried, even. For her? Because of her speech? Very possible.

She suspected they would be having WORDS about it soon enough. And if this did come to pass...well, Elizabeth had anticipated a wide variety of reactions from her Head of House over the course of her planning, and she had prepared her own responses accordingly. And if her words alone didn't beat his come their fateful little chat...she had a trump card that she was very willing to use against him.

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall, of course, fell silent immediately.

Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you..."

They were really rather simple notices, Elizabeth thought, as the old wizard listed them off. The forbidden forest was forbidden, no magic was allowed to be used in the corridors, Quidditch trials would be held in the second week of term, and the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side was out of bounds to everyone who did not wish to die a very painful death.

Elizabeth laughed at that last one - she was one of the few who did - though not for the reason one would think.

"He can't be serious." a rather worried-looking Tracy murmured to herself.

"He must be." spoke Gemma Farley, a very pretty, green-eyed, black-haired fifth year girl who happened to be a Slytherin prefect. "It's odd. He usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere. He should have told us prefects, at least." she huffed, shaking her head. "Whatever it is, just don't be stupid enough to go anywhere near that corridor and you'll be fine, all right?" she added, catching sight of the more-worried-than-ever look on Tracy's face.

"Right." nodded Tracy, taking a breath. "I'll just remember that I want to graduate."

Gemma offered the girl a comforting smile. "That's the spirit."  
she said encouragingly.

"I think," Dumbledore spoke again. "that all that needed to be said has been said." His twinkling eyes flashed in Elizabeth's direction, though she could discern nothing of the man's state of mind. "And now: Bedtime!  
Off you trot!"

The Slytherin first years followed Gemma through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, down the marble staircase, and through the entrance to the dungeons. After descending the stone steps into darkness, they were led through a labyrinth of passages, all of which took them deeper and deeper under the school.

Eventually,  
Gemma stopped in front of a stretch of bare, damp stone wall.

"This is the entrance to our dormitories." Gemma explained to the first years, smiling in the face of their confusion. "The password is Merlin."

At Gemma's word, a stone door concealed in the wall slid open. She grinned knowingly at the awe-struck first years, and marched through it. The first years followed her in eagerly, if not excitedly.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several older Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs. There was also an area with several round tables, a place for studying and homework.

On the left side of the room were two doors, which Gemma pointed out led into the boys' and girls' dormitories - as well as which door led to which.

Opposite the dormitory entrances was...nothing. Not a wall. A window. It stretched from floor to ceiling, and looked out into the depths of the very lake that Elizabeth and the first years had taken boats across earlier in the evening.

Elizabeth was so tired, and hurting from all the walking, that she fell asleep within moments of falling, face-first, onto her four-poster bed, not even noticing that her trunk was at the foot of it, or that she nearly landed on her cat, Tails, who had been sleeping until she had entered the dorm room.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the fat girl with the black hair."

"Did you see her scar?"

"Did you see her FACE?"

Elizabeth turned sharply on her heel, causing her long red hair to billow out behind her, and closed the gap between herself and the gawking first year Ravenclaws in three quick steps.

"This isn't a zoo, it's a school." she gritted, fighting to restrain her rage. She didn't need another outburst of accidental magic under her belt, especially not one that she suspected would be as bad as, if not worse than, the Leaky Cauldron incident. "So stop gawking, stop TALKING, and if I ever hear you call my friend that again..."

The Ravenclaws practically flew down the corridor, and Elizabeth was left feeling glad she hadn't finished her sentence.

"Millie..." Elizabeth began, turning to her friend.

"It's okay." mumbled Millicent, looking down at her feet. "They can call me what they want. You didn't have to do that."

"It's not and they can't." Elizabeth said firmly. "And yes, I did. You're a Slytherin, you're my friend, and you're pretty. And don't ever think otherwise." She smiled at Millicent, and took her hand. "Now come on, or else we'll be even later for our first lesson than we already are. Professor Snape's not going to be happy as it is."

"Right." Millicent nodded, and allowed Elizabeth to pull her along down the corridor, seeming equal parts pleased and embarrassed by the attentions of the Girl-Who-Lived.

Some ten minutes later, they managed to (finally) find the potions classroom. When they entered, it was to find Snape in the middle of taking the roll call. He paused, however, at their entrance, and looked at them, patiently and silently, evidently awaiting an explanation for their tardiness.

"I'm sorry we're late, professor." Elizabeth spoke, looking Snape in the eyes. "It's been a bit of a bad start." she professed. "We woke up late, we missed breakfast, then we were held up by other students, and then we got lost on the way here."

Draco and his friends, Crabbe and Goyle, sniggered behind their hands.

"Quiet." snapped Snape, turning a very harsh look on them, and causing them to fall immediately silent. "I'll not be tolerating such behavior in my classroom." he went on, his voice barely above a whisper. He paused, then a look came over his face as if he were remembering something, something simuoltaneously important and startling, and he continued on in a voice that was not nearly so harsh or low. "Now, I won't be taking any points from you this time, but if it happens again I will do so. And if it continues even still after, I will start assigning detentions. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Yes, professor." said Malfoy, looking away - and going pink in the cheeks.

Snape wasted no more of his attention on Malfoy, and turned a noticably softer gaze on Elizabeth and Millicent, and when he spoke his tone was almost...gentle. "As for you two, no points will be docked for your tardiness, as you're hardly the first first-year students to get off to a rough start on their first morning, however, if it happens again I will have no choice but to take points."

"We understand, sir." Elizabeth said smartly.

A faint smile came to Snape's lips. "I'm glad to hear it. Now take your seats."

Elizabeth and Millicent did so, taking up desks as nearest they could find to Daphne and Tracy, and Snape continued on with the roll call.  
Once he had finished, he looked up at the class, and silence reigned for a very long moment.

Snape's gaze settled on Elizabeth, light and curious, and finally he spoke. "Miss Potter, for five points, I wonder if perhaps you could tell me what I would get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood? No points will be taken for a wrong answer, or lack of any answer at all." he added, assuring - with his words as much as with the little smile he sent her way.

The hand of a bushy, brown-haired Gryffindor girl shot up into the air. Elizabeth sent the girl an amused look, shaking her head, before returning her eye to Snape. Elizabeth knew the answer to the question, knew it after a month of, every single day, staying up late into the night - and morning - with Dot and perusing her textbooks - and this was on top of Elizabeth's own hours she had set aside during the day to study her Hogwarts materials.

"The Draught of Living Death, sir." Elizabeth said confidently, even allowing a smile that could easily turn into a smirk to come to her lips.

"Precisely." said Snape, looking pleased, and answering her smile with a warm one of his own. It was the first smile Elizabeth had seen on his face that looked like it actually belonged there, and she felt a rush of pleasure herself, as well as pride.

It was very clear to Elizabeth that Snape had taken the letters from Lily and James to heart over the past month, that he still did and that he would always - exactly as Elizabeth's parents, and Elizabeth herself, had intended.

"For an additional five points," Snape spoke again. "where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Againt her very will, Elizabeth's smile transformed into a smirk. The question was an easy one, and the answer was even easier. "In the stomach of a goat, sir. Or in there." she added, nodding at the open storage cabinets that were stocked full of various potions ingredients.

Laughter rippled through the classroom, and an amused light came to Snape's eyes as he continued to regard Elizabeth, and only Elizabeth.

"Correct." he said, his voice laced with the amusement that shone in his dark eyes. "For a final five points, allow me to ask one final question of you: what is the difference between monkswood and wolfsbane?"

The bushy-haired Gryffindor girl stretched her hand as high as she could without leaving her seat, causing Elizabeth to nearly laugh, and causing Daphne to let out an incredibly unrestrained - and loud - snort of amusement.

To her credit, the Gryffindor girl kept her hand up, despite how pink in the face she went at Daphne's reaction.

"I know the answer, sir." started Elizabeth, taking pity on the Gryffindor girl. "So does she."

Snape's gaze slid to the Gryffindor girl, and he raised an amused eyebrow at her. "Very well then, Miss Granger, if you would grace us with the answer...?"

"Monkswood and wolfsbane are two different names for the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." the girl answered - no, stated - before sending a grateful smile Elizabeth's way.

"Almost word for word from the textbook." Snape replied, his eyebrow going higher than ever, and his voice growing thick as gold with hilarity. "Nevertheless, you're correct, Miss Granger, so I believe five points to Gryffindor are in order. The rest of you," he added, his eyes sweeping over the class as a whole. "should really be copying all of this down."

As the Potions lesson continued, Snape put them all into pairs, and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils.

It was only then, after Elizabeth and the Granger girl were paired up and in front of their cauldron, that Elizabeth remembered one very crucial, very distressing fact about potionmaking: it required fire.

But it was too late; broiling flames began popping up around Elizabeth, tall and dancing, licking up the sides of the big black cauldrons, and she was turning and spinning, darting her eye in a vain attempt to keep them all in sight, and her arms were crossing over her chest, hugging herself, shrinking, shrinking from the heat, from the haze that filled the air, and then she was gasping, struggling for breath as her throat and lungs burned, as they burned and dried and her eye was shutting, shutting so tight against smoke trying to pervade it.

Her voice could not escape her lips, could not even begin to form in the depths of her throat, and further still, no air could be spared from her lungs, and so she was silent, silent as she felt the flames creep around her, envelop her, and crawl onto her essence, and lick and lap at her in the worst way, taking her arms, her legs, her face that so pressed against the twisting, crackling, popping wood beneath her, and throughout it all she could do nothing - beyond not speaking, not screaming, not pleading nor begging to whatever gods existed and watched over the world for this, for right now, to END, to STOP - she could do nothing.

Elizabeth lay there, burning, and she could not move. She could not thrash and roll and try with utter futility to escape that which had taken hold of her, that which was eating away at her, causing her to bubble and burst all over, and causing every single tear that dared to escape her eyes to simply evaporate before even reaching the high bones of her cheeks.

Because that was it, the truth, the world, all that Elizabeth was and had, all that she would ever have, or would ever be: trapped.

There was no escape, no respite, no refuge, not for her body, not for her mind, and not for her tears.

Never for her tears, and now, now in the potions classroom, laying there on the floor, utterly motionless, lifeless, her green eye staring vacantly, unseeingly, now...now Elizabeth knew, too, never for her. Never for her.

Never for her would there ever be an escape from the flames. 


	5. Interlude, Hospital Wing

It was to darkness, and a very familiar, very _loud_ voice, that Elizabeth Potter awoke.

"If you don't let me see her, right now, I'll blow your fucking head off!" the familiar voice was shouting.

"Miss Dot, unless you want to be expelled I suggest you NEVER threaten OR take that tone with me again!" a woman's voice shrieked in response.

"PISS. OFF!" Dot's voice came again, sounding as if she were in some kind of a struggle. "You know what, forget thi- DEPULSO!"

A woman's cry of shock filled Elizabeth's ear, followed by the alarming sound of a very hard, flesh on stone impact.

"How DARE YOU?!" the woman cried, outraged - and ENraged.

Elizabeth opened her eye and sat bolt upright in a very fluffy bed, and found that she did not recognize her surroundings - though she did know, at least, that she was still inside Hogwarts.

Dot's voice sounded from the other side of two heavy wooden doors, crying out "Depulso!" again, and then the doors flew in and slammed against the stone with such force that a loud crack split the room, and Elizabeth saw the wood splinter off in some places.

Dot spotted Elizabeth immediately, and the expression on her face, and the look in her eyes - things that were so intense, things that Elizabeth had not seen from Dot since those first few weeks after the fire, things that genuinely frightened Elizabeth - instantly disappeared.

"Oh thank god!" Dot exclaimed, rushing over to Elizabeth's bedside - stowing her wand away in her robes as she did so - and completely ignoring the old woman with the wand who was stalking after her with pure rage etched in her face. "I thought I was going to have to KILL someone to get in here! I thought- I thought-" Dot faltered, tears coming to her eyes as she dropped to her knees before Elizabeth, and her hands sought out and enveloped Elizabeth's real.

"I'm fine." Elizabeth said softly, pulling her hand out from Dot's, and automatically leaning forward to wipe away her friend's tears. "I'm okay, see? It was just a little fall, okay, Dot? Just a fall. I saw fire, and it got to me, and I fell. But that's all. No harm, no burns, not again."

"Excuse me if I d-don't want to take your word for it this time." Dot cried - literally. "W-we both know how you were the f-first time about your injuries!"

Elizabeth smiled, and began stroking Dot's blond hair, and carressing her face in hand. "What are you going to do, check every inch of me by force?"

"If I have to!" Dot said fiercely, bringing her hand up to cover Elizabeth's, to hold it, and to press it to her cheek with a shocking strength.

"Miss Potter sustained no injuries." spoke the woman, managing to sound cold and comforting at the same time. Dot, of course, ignored her.

"I'm okay, I promise you." Elizabeth whispered, putting all the emotion and force behind her words as she could manage. Seeing just how rattled Dot was from Elizabeth's mishap...it was both immensely pleasing and worrying, and it even rattled a small part of ELIZABETH.

Dot locked eyes with Elizabeth. She was quiet and motionless for a long moment, then she nodded.

"I believe you." said Dot, but nonetheless, she pressed Elizabeth's hand to her cheek all the more.

"Good." said the woman, all harshness now as she regarded Dot - and raised her wand. "You will accompany me to Professor Sprout's office right this instant."

"Not going to happen." Dot said flatly, not even turning around to look at the woman.

"You are coming with me right now, young lady." the woman said lowly, dangerously, her eyes flashing.

"I'm staying right here, and if you try and take me away I'll send you into another wall." Dot replied, lowering her voice to match and mock the tone of the woman's own.

"Dot, go with her." Elizabeth said firmly, pulling her hand out from under Dot's, and replacing the warmth of Dot's flesh with the cool night air. "Go with her, listen to her, listen to your Head of House, and whatever happens...know that I'm as loyal to you as you've always been to me."

A multitude of emotions flashed across Dot's face, her mouth opened and closed a few times, and then she nodded, got to her feet, turned around and marched out those double doors.

"You'll stay here the rest of the night." the woman said to Elizabeth, lingering, before hurrying off after Dot with very determined steps. A wave of the woman's wand on her way out, and the doors closed shut of their own accord.

With no choice left to her, Elizabeth fell back onto the bed with a sigh. She sat up again almost instantly, however, upon noticing her nightstand, and what was placed atop it.

There was a sizable stack of letters, candies, and, presumably, get-well-soon sort of cards, as well as what looked to be some kind of wrapped gift.

Elizabeth picked up the parcel, feeling it, and found it to be surprisingly light and...without any solid form. It felt like a really thin blanket, or some piece of clothing - a shirt, perhaps. When she opened the parcel, something fluid and silvery gray slipped out onto her lap, where it lay in gleaming folds.

She picked up the shining, silvery cloth, and almost gasped. It felt strange to the touch, almost like water woven into material. Holding it up and looking it over, she realized that it was a cloak.

Just as she was wondering who had sent it to her, and why, and began to search the torn remains of the wrapping for some sort of note, just such a thing fell out onto her lap.

Elizabeth seized the letter up, and began to read the narrow, loopy writing on the parchment. It read:

 _Dear Elizabeth,_

 _You are no doubt wondering what it is you have received. This gift is a rather miraculous and unique item. It is a cloak of invisibility, and it belonged to your father. He left it in my possession before he died, and I thought it time it was returned to you._

 _I'm certain you will find many a use for this cloak, practical and practical, big and small. Future, and more immediate._

 _I am yours most sincerely,_

 _Albus Dumbledore_

For the longest of times, Elizabeth simply carressed the cloak, savoring the joy in her heart at the sensation of her hand on the watery cloth, and in the knowledge that the more she immersed herself in the wizarding world, the more tangible connections to her parents she would come across.

Eventually, however, Elizabeth turned away from feelings, and began to do some thinking.

This invisibility cloak of hers, formerly her father's, could be utilized for so many different reasons, used in so many different situations. Practical reasons, reasons big and small, in the future, and, yes, more immediately should the need arise. The cloak could hide herself and others, it could be used to escape a dangerous situation, or even be used for the purpose of spying and information gathering.

Dumbledore had definitely been right about all the possibilities the cloak opened up to Elizabeth. But the question was...WAS there an immediate need for the cloak? Her thoughts went to Dot, who at this very moment was likely being judged by her Head of House - judged on whether or not she should be expelled for assaulting a staff member.

The cloak could be used to allow Elizabeth to traverse the corridors of Hogwarts at night, to find Dot, and to listen in on Dot's judgement. But...no. That was impulsive, stupid, pointless rule-breaking, when all Elizabeth needed to do was wait and see. Wait and see whether or not her friend was to be expelled.

And when a verdict was reached, Elizabeth would be there for Dot, would be there to speak on her behalf, to defend her and...and explain for her. Explain to the staff what Dot herself could not, would not, about her behavior.

Yes, Elizabeth decided, laying back down and hugging the cloak to her chest with her prosthetic arm. She was a patient person, and a thoughtful person, and she always had been, and while the cloak and all it could mean for her was exciting, there was no need to get swept up in it all and just do the first thing that popped into her head.

That was just foolishness, recklessness, and idiocy, and nothing good ever came of acting THAT WAY.

* * *

When Elizabeth woke in the morning, it was to find an unexpected pleasure of a visitor sitting at her bedside. She smiled at her visitor, and sat up.

"Hi, sir." Elizabeth greeted her visitor happily.

"Hello." Snape replied, looking awkward. "How are you feeling?"

Elizabeth's smile widened. She took a Chocolate Frog from her nightstand, and held it out to Snape. "Normal, thanks. I'm a little upset that I missed out on my first day of lessons, but...Chocolate Frog?"

Snape accepted the Frog with a smile, and a very taken aback look in his eyes, as if he had forgotten that people often performed such simple acts of kindness and charity.

"Thank you." he said quietly, sincerely. "As for your lessons, your professors have already held a meeting, where it was decided that you would be exempt from the work you missed, and that you wouldn't receive any bad marks."

"Do you know what will happen to Dot, sir?" Elizabeth said suddenly. Snape looked her in the eye, and his look was one of reassurance. When he spoke, his words were similar in nature, and they caused pure elation to fill Elizabeth.

"It was decided by her Head of House that she would have detention every Sunday evening for the entire month. Madam Pomfrey, of course, thought the punishment should have been far longer, and far more...punishing." Snape added, a note of amusement coming into his voice. "Professor Sprout's defense of the assigned punishment - as if she needed one - was that Miss Dot, in her own, spectacularly violent way, was displaying the fundamental qualities of a true Hufflepuff."

"She's loyal to a fault." Elizabeth said seriously, honestly. "She'd die for me." 'And kill for me.' she added silently.

"That you don't abuse or take for granted such a deep loyalty is very admirable." Snape said quietly, seriously, and just as truthfully.

"So is your dedication to becoming a better person." Elizabeth said knowingly, as much because she wanted him to know the truth of the statement as because she wanted to shift the conversation away from Dot.

"Yes." Snape agreed softly. "It is. And it is thanks to you, and to Lily, and even, in part, to James Potter, that I've been striving to become better these past weeks. Had I not read those letters you gave me..." he fell silent, his eyes flashing with pure shame and self-loathing. "I would still be a man enveloped in bitterness and hate, a man of spite and coldness, a man who- who bullied because he was, and who was cruel because cruelity had been done to him."

"Yeah well, that's all behind you now." Elizabeth smiled. "You're Sev 2.0 now. Nicer, fairer, open, and much more patient. Someone mum can be proud of, and someone she can trust to protect and care for me, like she wants for you, for us. But, as much as you've learned in the past month, I know something you still need to learn, and it's CRITICAL that you do..."

"And what would that be?" Snape said slowly, giving her something between a grin and a scowl at her candor, because he knew as well as she did what Lily wanted for them, for the desires had been expressed in Lily's letter.

Elizabeth threw herself forward, and wrapped her arms around Snape's neck. "You need to learn how to hug. Mum said you were rubbish at it. I'm going to fix that."

Slowly, clumsily, Snape's arms came around her, and his hands came to rest on her back. "We'll see." he muttered under his breath.

Elizabeth released him after a moment, and was treated to the sight of his sallow cheeks flushing.

"Eat the Frog, sir." she dared to giggle, looking at the Chocolate Frog Snape still was clutching (crushing, more like) in his right hand.

"I haven't eaten candy in years." he professed, looking at the Frog like it was going to jump up and kick him in the face any moment now. "I sincerely doubt I still have the...fortitude, for such an endeavor."

"If you're going to be taking care of me and spending time with me, you're going to have to reacquire a taste for it." Elizabeth said matter-of-factly, opening a Chocolate Frog for herself.

"Undoubtedly..." sighed Snape, and then, with a certain slowness, an exaggerated series of movements that brought mirthful sounds forth from Elizabeth's lips , he opened his own Frog, and bit off the head.

"It's good, isn't it?" said Elizabeth, watching Snape's face. Watching it scrunch up, and a shiver go through his body.

"It is...far sweeter than I remember." said Snape, giving her a rather half-hearted scowl.

"Who's on the card?" asked Elizabeth promptly. "Dot and I started collecting them on the train." she added, in needless explanation. "I have Dumbledore, and a few others...Oh! Speaking of Dumbledore..."

"I know." Snape sighed, rather heavily this time, jerking his head at her nightstand, and to the neatly folded, silvery cloth atop it. "He sent you your father's invisibility cloak. A cloak that James used to sneak out of Hogwarts on many occassions, as well as to carry out far too much mischief, and create FAR too much mass mayhem."

"And to nearly kill you." Elizabeth said quietly.

Snape nodded slowly. "Yes, that as well. You, I trust, will be using the cloak for things not so trivial, criminal, and juvenile."

"I have some serious ideas for the utilization of the cloak." Elizabeth assured.

Snape's eyes glittered with curiosity. "Such as hiding from the Dark Lord?"

"To escape from him, if need be." Elizabeth corrected, unable to stop her voice turning very sharp and fierce. "But I won't hide, not from him, and not from whoever out there is still loyal to him - like Professor Quirrell."

To her surprise, Snape didn't look surprised at her mention of Quirrell.

"Yes, his reaction to you in the Leaky Cauldron WAS peculiar, wasn't it?" Snape said slowly. He took another bite of Chocolate Frog, and looked upon Elizabeth with a sudden, heavy seriousness. "I take it that you still plan to live up to your legend?"

"I do." Elizabeth said firmly. "I take it that YOU are going to support me in that endeavor, SIR?"

"As much as I can, yes." Snape replied, looking proud and regretful both - of HER. "Lily would want me to." he added quietly. He hesitated, then continued on. "If you are going to live up to your legend, you'll need to be more than cunning, have more than a way with words - although your opening move at the welcoming feast was a masterstroke that impressed even the Headmaster."

"What is it?" Elizabeth prompted patiently.

"You need to be taught how to duel, and duel exceptionally well, if you are to stand even a chance against the Dark Lord, or any of his inner circle of Death Eaters."

"And you're going to teach me?" Elizabeth surmised innocently.

Snape gave a self-deprecating smile. "Potions master though I may be, I HAVE been in my fair share of duels, I assure you."

"I'm assured." said Elizabeth, entirely serious. "When do we start?"

Snape took a moment to consider, before saying finally, "I will collect you from the Slytherin Dungeons at eight o'clock on Saturday."

"I can hardly wait."

"Nor can I." Snape admitted. "You're an incredibly powerful witch, and I find myself eager to discover the depths of your strength and abilities. But let us focus on the here and now. You're free to leave the hospital wing and resume your classes, if you wish..."

Elizabeth practically leapt out of the bed, so eager was she to ACTUALLY attend her classes.


	6. Verging On A Memorable Weekend

The weekend could not come soon enough for Elizabeth Potter.

And the closer it came, the more Elizabeth realized that it would be a very EVENTFUL weekend, what with her first dueling session with Snape Saturday evening, a letter from Hagrid she had gotten at breakfast one morning inviting her and Dot down to his hut for tea Friday afternoon, and something Elizabeth had seen on the notice board in the Slytherin common room about broomstick flying lessons that were to be held in the morning on Friday.

And (as if Elizabeth's schedule wasn't full enough) there was also something ELSE she had to decide whether or not to fit into her weekend, which all began at breakfast Thursday morning, courtesy of Dot - and co.

"Liz, meet Hannah Abbott," Dot gestured to a pink-faced girl with blond pigtails "Susan Bones," Dot pointed to a girl with a long plait down her back, who gave Elizabeth a smile "and Justin, who's last name I can't really remember." finished Dot, with a rather affectionate look at a curly, blond-haired boy.

Elizabeth smiled at Dot's Housemates, and stuck out her hand first to Hannah. "Nice to meet you." greeted Elizabeth lightly, for Hannah seemed to be in a perpetual and irreversible state of blush, and Elizabeth immediately had her marked down as the sensitive sort.

"H-hi." Hannah stammered, looking everywhere BUT at Elizabeth.

"It's nice to meet you." said Susan, with no hesitation whatsoever as she shook Elizabeth's hand. "I can't BELIEVE I'm meeting you." Susan added, almost as if it were an afterthought.

Elizabeth turned her gaze to Justin, who stepped up and shook her hand with a considerable amount of what she could only identify as eagerness.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley." he said brightly, with an air about him that was almost pompous. "Know who you are, of course, the famous Elizabeth Potter...You're awfully brave, you know, to walk around how you are with your chin up, and that speech you gave on the first night? Fantastic! But then, that's how I'd imagined you to be from reading the history books. Brave, true and strong. Powerful, I say."

In the aftermath of the boy's happy chattering, Elizabeth stared.

"As you can probably guess," Dot said cheerfully in the silence, throwing an arm around Justin's shoulders. "I like this one the most."

"Okay." Elizabeth said slowly. "Well, now that I've met you all, how about you come with me to meet my friends?"

"I don't know..." Hannah said hesitantly, looking to the Slytherin table with obvious apprehension.

"I, for one, would be delighted to know what kind of company the Girl-Who-Lived keeps." said Justin loudly.

"Me too." said Susan, nodding vigorously.

"Time to meet the snakes."  
said Dot, grinning.

Without further ado, Elizabeth turned sharply on her heel, and led the Hufflepuffs over to her House table, where Daphne, Tracy, and Millicent were sitting together.

"What's with the flock?" said Tracy by way of greeting.

"They're Puffs!" Daphne exclaimed in mock-delight. "How cute!"

"Guys, play nice." Elizabeth said shortly. She indicated the Hufflepuffs with a nod, and went on to make the introductions. "This is Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbott. And this...this is Dot."

"Hello." said Millicent, almost inaudibly, yet sincerely, to Dot. "I've heard a lot about you from Elizabeth."

"You've been telling stories about me?" said Dot in amusement, looking sideways at Elizabeth.

"Only good stories." Elizabeth assured.

"Susan Bones?" spoke Tracy, looking to Susan, her expression curious. "Are you related to Amelia Bones?"

Susan smiled. "She's my auntie."

"She's a nice woman." spoke Millicent, smiling at Susan. "A fair woman. My father thinks so, at least. He met her once and took a liking to her."

"And THAT is going on my list of top ten things I didn't need to know." chortled Daphne, shaking her whitish-blond head.

"You're going to need a longer list if you 're going to be hanging out with US." Dot told her cheerfully. "Trust me, she...what's her name...?" she faltered, looking between Millicent and Elizabeth.

"Millicent Bullstrode." supplied Millicent.

"I'm Tracy Davis." said Tracy, with a little smile.

Daphne just shrugged.

"Her name's Daphne Greengrass." Elizabeth informed the Hufflepuffs, exasperation flooding into her voice.

"You'd be the daughter of Celeste Greengrass, then, wouldn't you?" said Justin, to the surprise of everyone.

Daphne narrowed her eyes at the curly-haired boy, clearly wondering whether or not she was being insulted. "Your point?" she settled for saying, her tone holding a bit of an edge to it.

"Well, I daresay she's an interesting person." Justin went on, all smiles. "You don't hear of many mothers with seven daughters, do you?"

"I suppose not." Daphne said, not making any attempt to keep the irritation out of her voice.

"I suppose that does explain the manor, though." Justin went on, oblivious to Daphne's annoyance with him. "The more children you have, the more room you need for them..."

Daphne glared daggers at Justin, but said nothing at all as, once again, the boy went into a long-winded, one-sided conversation.

Dot took the opportunity to lean over and say, quite happily in Elizabeth's ear, "Aww, look at them bonding."

Elizabeth merely smiled.

"What's your favorite class?" she asked casually of Hannah, and interrupting Justin in the process, before he could reach a level of provocation that would result in Daphne leaping up out of her seat and strangling him.

"Charms." Hannah answered quietly.

"Well, what do you know. Millie's favorite is Charms, too." said Elizabeth, suppressing a smirk.

"Really?" said Hannah, looking to Millicent in surprise.

Millicent, who wasn't as dumb as everyone thought she was, sent Elizabeth a glare, letting Elizabeth know that she knew exactly what Elizabeth was doing, before smiling slightly at Hannah and saying, "Really. Why would you waste time turning a teacup into a bird when you could just charm the teacup to fly as it is?"

Hannah smiled at Millicent, and not at all shyly. "Well said."

"Raise your hand if you think Quirrell's classes are a joke." Dot said suddenly, a surprisingly serious look on her face.

"And useless." smirked Tracy, raising her hand.

"I don't believe we're learning anything that would be of actual use in the fight against the dark forces." said Justin loudly in agreement.

"We won't be able to defend ourselves once we get out of here, if Professor Quirrell keeps going on as he is." said Susan quietly, shaking her head. "Auntie wouldn't be too pleased with me if that happened, being the head of magical law enforcement and all."

"He's pathetic." Daphne agreed, crinkling her nose, as if she were disgusted with their DADA professor at the mere thought of him (or perhaps the thought of his garlic-infused turban...)

"Well then," Dot said slowly, casting a grin Elizabeth's way. "aren't we all lucky that someone here among us is going to be starting some private defense lessons with a certain scary professor come Saturday?"

Elizabeth didn't react as those who already knew turned their eyes on her (Tracy, Millicent, Dot, and Daphne), and those who didn't (Hannah, Susan, and Justin) turned their eyes on her anyways because it was painfully obvious who Dot was referring to.

"Someone with long, blood red hair, a prosthetic arm and leg, one eye, and one ear." Dot continued in total deadpan. "Someone with a reputation that stretches back to her infant days. Someone standing right next to me. Someone who's name starts with an E."

"I think everyone here gets who you're talking about!" Elizabeth finally cried, holding back laughter.

"But do they get what I'm implying?" Dot said furtively.

"Whatever Elizabeth learns from Professor Snape, she in turn teaches to us?" Tracy said, in an almost bored tone.

"Bloody brilliant!" Justin enthused.

"Yeah!" Dot cried, mimicking his tones. "Ten points to Slytherin for guessing right!" she added, with an overly dramatic finger-point at Tracy.

Millicent looked hopefully over to the Slytherin hourglass, and most everyone broke into laughter.

"One day." Dot vowed. "One day I'll have the power."

"Fortunately, that day is not today, Miss Dot."

Dot wheeled around so fast she almost lost her balance.

Snape was standing there, having come down from the High Table.

"I couldn't help overhearing your conversation." he said softly. "And I must warn you all that if you undertake the task of teaching yourselves Defense, I will be forced to take points, and perhaps even assign detentions. Certainly, I would have to notify the Headmaster of such dangerous activities."

"Sir-" Elizabeth began calmly.

"However," Snape cut her off, adopting an almost casual tone. "if you are all so concerned with learning how to defend yourselves, you COULD bring up such concerns with a member of this staff, and that member of staff could, in turn, bring those concerns to the Headmaster, as well as the other professors, during a staff meeting. I have long felt that what this school needs is an alternative sport to Quidditch, for those without the ability or the desire to fly about on broomsticks." he finished, still in that same, casual tone of voice. But his smile, and his eyes, were definitely telling Elizabeth something.

Something as painfully obvious as Dot's insinuations mere moments ago.

"Then, if a lot of students banded together to support the starting up of some kind of inter-house dueling tournament..." said Susan, her eyes lighting up.

"It is highly likely that the request for such a tournament would be granted." Snape said, giving Susan a small nod. "And could be established relatively soon. The start of next year, or perhaps even the second term of the current year."

Leaving them with that, Snape swept back up to the High Table with a small smirk on his face.

"Well, then..." Justin trailed off, looking rather dumbfounded.

"That just happened." Dot said happily.

"It did." Elizabeth agreed. She looked at her friends, Slytherin and Hufflepuff both. "So, do you think we can endure Quirrell's ineptitude for at least a year, or, with any luck, half a year?"

"We're already doing that." Daphne said humorously. "You could have just asked us if we could keep doing what we're already doing."

"Well - can you?" Elizabeth teased.

Daphne scowled. "Of course I can!"

"If we really do start a dueling tournament- oh, I don't think there's been one here in over a hundred years." Susan said enthusiastically.

"Really?" said a surprised Millicent.

"Really." Susan confirmed.

"I wonder why." said Hannah, in a quiet little voice. An odd sort of silence followed her words.

"I love nap time." Dot offered up. "I mean Defense Against the Dark Arts class." she added - just in case there was any confusion.

One by one, everyone voiced their agreement with Dot's sentiment - and her rebranding of Quirrell's class.

"So." said Elizabeth. "We should probably start spreading the word about the dueling tournament idea, gather more support for it than just us. The staff couldn't possibly ignore the whole school crying out for it, for example."

"Everyone who's had to sit through even one class with Quirrell will jump at the chance to start up a dueling tournament." said Daphne, grinning.

"But everyone HAS- oh." The always-pink-faced Hannah turned even pinker at the laughter she caused, but she did manage a little smile, herself.

"We'll get the tournament, with or without mass support." Tracy spoke, nodding at Elizabeth. "After all, we have the Girl-Who-Lived in support of it. And whatever she wants, she gets."

"That's not entirely true." Justin interjected, before Elizabeth could do so. "She still hasn't fixed her injur-"

"Hey," Daphne interrupted, glaring at him without much effort. "Do us all a favor and try not to crush our hopes and dreams, okay?"

"I'll try." Justin sniffed.

"Buuuut he makes no promises." Dot put in, clapping Justin on the back.

"So, should we use the weekend to spread the word about the tournament?" said Susan, bringing them back on topic.

"I don't think there's any better time." Millicent shrugged, earning her a smile from Susan.

"Agreed." Daphne said shortly, as if that settled the matter. And seeing as Elizabeth, Dot, Justin, and Hannah all voiced their agreement on the subject immediately after, it did.

* * *

"This isn't something you can just push your way past with sheer willpower."

Elizabeth tore her gaze away from the crackling flames of the fireplace in the Slytherin common room, and looked at Daphne. It was late Thursday night, and they were the only two still awake - the only ones in the common room.

"That won't stop me from trying." Elizabeth replied quietly.

"I know." Daphne scoffed, picking idly at the arm of her chair. "Believe me, I know. But believe me about this too: torturing yourself isn't going to do you any good...would you STOP looking at that thing! What did I JUST say?!"

"I'm never going to be able to take Potions if I can't stop being afraid of my own cauldron!" Elizabeth said sharply, frustration washing over her.

"And I'm never going to run my own restaurant, but we don't get everything we want, now do we? Look," Daphne sighed, and killed off all her sarcasm before continuing. "I know how close you are with Professor Snape, and I know how much you want to take Potions, but you just can't, and Snape himself said you can't, so why don't you just accept it and focus on all the other classes you CAN take? The classes, I remind you, that you're doing the best in out of everyone in our year - besides that Granger girl."

"I would, but..." 'but I want to make Snape proud of me - in HIS class.' Elizabeth finished to herself. And, more than that little desire, she wanted to get past her issues with fire because they were a crippling weakness within her. All anyone would have to do in a duel with her would be to send a stream of flames her way and she'd be finished. Helpless, then dead.

"But nothing!" Daphne burst out angrily. "You're NEVER going to be able to change this, so stop trying and just deal with it, all right?! And STOP trying to give yourself a damned panic attack!" she added furiously, catching Elizabeth, once again, looking to the fireplace.

Before Elizabeth could say or do anything, Daphne had flung herself up out of her chair and disappeared into the girls' dormitory, leaving behind a very stunned Elizabeth.


	7. Allowing Herself To Remember

Draco Malfoy's behavior wouldn't have been suspicious if he hadn't come up to her nearly right after receiving a letter from his eagle owl, nor would it have been in any way suspect if he hadn't spent the past week keeping his distance from her and sending her the occassional sneer.

So, when Draco Malfoy approached Elizabeth on Friday morning at breakfast with an offering of sweets he had received from home in addition to the aforementioned letter...Elizabeth was entirely suspicious, as well as fairly sure she knew what was going on.

"Did you lace these with anything?" she asked of Draco, examining a pack of Every Flavor Beans with high scrutiny.

"No." Draco answered quickly and casually - and honestly, Elizabeth suspected, but it payed to be absolutely sure. She fixed him with a very fake, but very convincing (at least, in her opinion) glare.

"Did you charm them to explode?"

"No!" Draco repeated, his pale cheeks turning pink, and an almost imperceptible note of exasperation entering his voice.

"So why, exactly, have you decided to try being my friend, a full week after listening to my speech, if it isn't to do me in?" Elizabeth spoke slowly, carefully, holding his gaze.

"You're not going to learn the finer, higher points of wizarding society if you hang about with the likes of Greengrass, Bullstrode, and those Hufflepuffs of yours." Draco replied proudly, drawing himself up and lifting his chin just so. "I can help you there." he added, and he held his hand out to her very casually. Too casually.

Elizabeth withheld a smile - and her flesh and blood hand. _So that's how your father's told you to play it._ she thought to herself. _You're to avoid earning my enmity, but you're not to be seen gaining my explicit favor either. I guess we'll see how long you'll be avoiding taking sides, and if that ever changes._

And if it did...if Draco ever leaned one way or the other when it came to Elizabeth, then she would know by extension which way his reformed Death Eater (yet still criminal) father, Lucius Malfoy, would lean when it came to her. At least for now, for so long as Draco didn't have his own ideas and plans. But that would change in later years, Elizabeth was certain. And when it did...things would get a whole lot more complicated between her and the House of Malfoy.

"I welcome any help you can give me, at least when it comes to that sort of thing." said Elizabeth, offering her prosthetic hand to Draco with a smile on her face - a smile, she noted, that again caused Draco to flush. This little observation almost caused her smile to transform into a grin, because while she would never take advantage of _Dot's_ feelings and opinions towards her, Elizabeth would have no qualms about taking advantage of the apparent crush _Draco_ had on her - when and if the need to do so ever arose.

Such a need arose some thirty seconds later when, over at the Gryffindor table, Neville Longbottom opened up a package just delivered to him by a barn owl, and excitedly began showing those around him the contents of the package, which was a small, glass sphere filled with white smoke (Elizabeth overheard Hermione telling everyone in her typically loud, bossy voice that it was something called a Remembrall).

Draco, finished with breakfast, and seemingly _quite_ eager to get to their first flying lesson (as he'd been boasting to everyone who would listen for the past few days now that he was an expert flier, and had narrowly escaped from helicopters on many an occasion), snatched the Remembrall out of Neville's hand as he was passing by the Gryffindor table.

Elizabeth was up and intercepting Draco in a flash. She was not the only one in the Great Hall to have the idea. Up at the High Table, Professor McGonagall, having spotted the trouble, half-rose from her chair, but a look from Dumbledore and a shake of the head from Snape caused her to resume her seat. The Professors all looked on the scene curiously - Snape most of all.

"What've you got there?" Elizabeth said casually, nodding at the Remembrall clutched tightly in Draco's hand.

Draco's expression, which had been an out-and-out sneer directed at Neville, instantly shifted to something resembling innocence, and when he spoke his voice reflected Elizabeth's casualness right back at her. "Just something Longbottom here got."

"Something you were just taking a look at." Elizabeth responded, making it a statement rather than a question, still retaining that casual air. Draco's lip curled, and his eyes narrowed, leaving no doubt in her mind that he knew what she was doing right then, and that he knew that _she_ knew what he had begun doing in the last minute or so in regards to _her_.

They both knew, and they were both still willing to do the dance.

Which was why, after a very brief silence, Draco nodded and tossed the Remembrall carelessly back to Neville, before resuming his strut out of the Great Hall.

Elizabeth didn't follow Draco, seeing as there was still a good five minutes before breakfast ended, as well as because she wanted to do some reaching out to the Gryffindors. She decided to start with where she knew she would have an advantage coming in, in the form of Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, who both had reasons to be grateful to Elizabeth (reasons beyond the fact that she had saved the world, that is).

"Sorry about him." Elizabeth said to Neville in way of greeting, nodding in the direction of the Entrance Hall where Draco had disappeared.

"Thanks for getting this back for me." Neville responded, holding up his Remembrall, his face shining with both gratitude and delight.

"It was no trouble." Elizabeth said truthfully.

"That was really good of you to do, you know." Hermione put in, giving Elizabeth a warm smile, close-lipped smile to go along with the compliment - and _still_ managing to sound as if she were _informing_ Elizabeth of something she had no knowledge of whatsoever.

"I know it was." Elizabeth said in amusement, and giving in to a smile. "What exactly does a Remembrall do?" she added to Neville, as much out of politeness as out of genuine curiosity, eyeing the glass ball.

"Well, see, my gran knows I forget things." Neville began exuberantly. "This tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red - oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet. "...you've forgotten something..."

"That's handy." said Elizabeth, despite that she felt a Remembrall was the exact opposite, because what good was it to know you'd forgotten something if you couldn't remember it anyways? That would just be frustrating, not helpful. With Neville preoccupied with that very dilemma - trying to remember what he'd forgotten - Elizabeth turned her attentions to Hermione and said casually, "Do you want to study together sometime?"

Hermione looked as if Christmas had come early. She was practically glowing, and a big smile overtook her face despite that a blush was permeating it - a big smile that revealed two rather large front teeth that Elizabeth found to be just a little bit cute. "I'd love to, yes!" Hermione gushed. "I mean, it only makes sense, doesn't it? We _are_ the two best students in our year, and we ought to work together to keep up our standards!"

Elizabeth grinned back at the bushy-haired Gryffindor. "Great. How does the library at eight in the morning on Sunday sound to you, just for our first session?"

"Perfect!" said Hermione, almost squealing in her joy. "Just perfect. Have you done that homework McGonagall gave us on-"

The chiming of a far-off bell interrupted Hermione, and signaled the end of breakfast and the start of classes - or, in the case of the first years, their first broomstick flying lesson.

At the sound of the bell, Hermione's excitement instantly vanished, to be replaced by something akin to horror. She then tried to get up from the table and stick her nose in a very big book of hers entitled Quidditch Through the Ages at the same time.

"Hey, close it." said Elizabeth, her voice quiet as she placed her real hand on the cover of the book and applied a good amount of pressure. Hermione shot her a look that said only: why? Elizabeth chose to respond to that look in very gentle tones. "Take it from me; you don't have to prove anything to anyone."

Hermione's frantic anxiety gave way to wide-eyed shock. For a while she just stood there, staring at Elizabeth, and then she came back to herself, gave a small, almost timid nod, and closed the book.

* * *

Out on the grounds for their first flying lesson, the air was breezy, the sky was clear, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

Twenty broomsticks were already there, lying in neat lines on the ground. So was their teacher, Madam Hooch, a woman with short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Hurry up!"

Elizabeth glanced down at her broom, finding it to be very old, with twigs sticking out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say Up!"

 _That's a disturbingly fortunate coincidence..._ thought Elizabeth, as her broom jumped into her real, right hand at once. But it was one of the few that did. Draco's was one of them, and Elizabeth saw him sneak a glance her way when he thought she wasn't looking. Hermione's gave a great leap that brought it within inches of her palm, but it fell short, and Neville's didn't move at all.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. When she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years, his cheeks went particularly pink, and another of his surreptitious looks was thrown Elizabeth's way.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle- three- two-"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch s lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle twelve feet twenty feet. Elizabeth saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and WHAM a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his. "Broken wrist," Elizabeth heard her mutter. "Come on, boy it s all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say Quidditch. Come on, dear."

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Draco darted forward and snatched something out of the grass. It was the Remembrall, glittering in the sun as Draco held it up.

Elizabeth could not restrain a sigh of complete and total exasperation. She shrugged her dark red hair behind her head and strode right up to Draco. She stuck out her real hand, palm up. "Give it here, Draco." she said, her exasperation spilling over into her voice like a burst dam.

Draco looked like a deer caught in headlights. He smiled uneasily, glanced at Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle, then looked back to Elizabeth. He was trapped, and he knew it as well as Elizabeth did. He could hand the Remembrall over to Elizabeth without a fuss, because to _not_ do so would definitely count as (and _would)_ earning her enmity, and end up looking weak in front of his friends, or...

Or he could follow an entirely different train of logic and reasons for _not_ giving it to her, and risk not just _her_ ire, but his father's. Reasons that all began with a slight flush in his cheeks under the brilliantly shining sun.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find." Draco said, his tone casual, and not at all malicious, as he called his broomstick into his free hand with a gesture and mounted it.

 _Don't you dare try and impress me._ Elizabeth thought viciously. But, as she watched Draco shoot up into the air (and cast several looks down at her), she couldn't help but feel that he was going to try doing that anyways.

"Draco," she shouted up at him. "If you really want a Remembrall so badly, why not send a letter asking your father to buy you one?"

The majority of the Gryffindors laughed, and even a good few Slytherins. Elizabeth didn't have time to glare at them for laughing at Draco's expense, however.

"I don't need- I don't need some rubbish thing like this!" Draco retorted from high above, almost spluttering, his expression incredulous, mildly offended, and even betrayed, at the laughter coming his way. The laughter from his friends as well as his enemies.

"Then you won't have a problem with giving it to me." Elizabeth said coolly, locking eyes with Draco from across the distance and letting him know that this was _not_ the way to impress her (not that there was _any_ way to impress her, but she wasn't going to tell Draco that).

There was a long, silent moment in which she thought Draco was going to toss the Remembrall just to spite her, on account of his disdain for her winning out over both his father's instructions _and_ his _other_ feelings for her, but then Draco was floating back down to the grass, his expression proud and unyielding as ever. And yet there was something different about it this time, and Elizabeth knew what.

In the face of the jeers and laughter coming his way, Draco was wearing a mask, just as Dot nearly always did, and just as Elizabeth herself often chose to do.

"Here." Draco muttered, slapping the Remembrall into Elizabeth's real hand, and then stalking off to join Crabbe and Goyle.

Elizabeth pocketed the Remembrall, then turned to her classmates - who were _still_ jeering at Draco - and bellowed "Everyone shut up!" because some situations just required a shovel rather than a scalpel. And because some situations left her feeling more enraged than others, there was a sudden poofing noise, and hundreds of blades of grass and clods of dirt exploded up from the ground as if a grenade had been lobbed, showering her offensive classmates and having the fortunate side effect of getting them to be quiet.

"Are you done?" Elizabeth said to them, in the silence that followed her outburst of magic (as well as her plain outburst), her voice hard. She received many shocked nods in return, but she payed them no attention. She looked to Draco, and got a single, grateful nod from him.

That one nod from him was worth more to Elizabeth than all the others.

* * *

A flash of blue light lit up the barren Potions classroom, and Elizabeth went stumbling backwards, tripping over her own feet and crashing to the hard stone floor, flat on her rear. She thrust her wand up at the looming figure in black robes and cried in quick, panicked, succession, "Lumos! Stupefy! Auctus!"

Only the complete and utter randomness and unexpected nature of her attack caused the spells to strike home, with the Wand Lighting charm blinding her opponent for a single second, allowing the follow-up Stunning Spell to strike the black-robed man in the chest, and the Engorgement charm that was hot on the stunner's heel to catch him right in the face.

The robed man fell flat on his face with a very, painfully audible thud, and then there was silence in the classroom. A heavy, horrible silence.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, ran a hand through her tousled red hair, and then fell back to the floor, flat on her back. She lay there like that for several moments, before she risked a glance at her unconcious opponent. Severus Snape was sprawled on his stomach, eyes closed, wand having rolled several feet away, and his already large, hooked nose was now cartoonish in proportion.

"God, he's going to be so pissed when he wakes up..." Elizabeth sighed, shutting her eye and tightening her hold on her phoenix wand. At least Dot would be happy, once Elizabeth told her that she had actually, practically applied the Wand Lighting spell in a combat situation. It had allowed Elizabeth to beat Snape in their very first dueling session - if she ignored the fact that her success was _actually_ owing to a combination of luck and chance, and had nothing at all to do with the spells she had chosen.

Some five minutes later, when Elizabeth had finally decided to stop delaying the inevitable, she performed the counter-curse to awaken Snape - and then immediately threw up the shield charm Snape had taught her nearly half an hour ago.

Snape looked on her with amusement, and the usual disorientation that followed an awakening from being stunned, as he said, "You can drop the shield, the duel is over. You won, even if by luck and-" He suddenly stopped dead, and his hands went to his face.

Elizabeth put all her willpower and magic into reinforcing her shield (though she had not forgotten that a magical shield would not block the Killing Curse). True, she was seemingly immune to the Killing Curse, as had been proven twice now, but she wasn't going to take any chances. "Accident." she offered up from behind her shield, keeping her voice and face oh so carefully devoid of any and all expression whatsoever.

Snape's expression and reflection mirrored Elizabeth's own in their complete _lack of_ , as he performed a simple Shrinking charm on his nose and said, "No harm done."

Elizabeth's shield remained. "Are you sure?"

Snape managed a smile that was almost gentle as he said, "Quite." Elizabeth finally lowered her shield, and Snape continued. "I'm...very proud of you, as well as impressed. You're an incredibly quick learner, and your natural reflexes are, quite frankly, astonishing." He hesitated, then- "Those reflexes would serve you well on the Quidditch pitch, if you ever desired to try out. I'm sure your father will not get any true peace unless you at least try." he finished with an uncertain sort of smile.

"You know, he told me the same thing two years ago, almost word for word." Elizabeth laughed, causing Snape's smile to grow more assured, and an amused chuckle to issue from his lips.

"No, I don't know." Snape said carefully, quietly, after a moments silence. "How exactly did you achieve such a meeting with your parents? How were they able to tell you how to write those letters, and instruct you to give them to me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Elizabeth responded, her voice carefully blank, her face _easily_ blank (for expressionless was its default), and her right hand tightening around her wand so much so that she thought it would surely snap in two at any moment, as pure terror gripped her heart...

The _man with two faces stood tall amongst the flames, seemingly oblivious to their heat, to the smoke permeating the corridor, even clad as he was in his thick, black cloak. The wand he held, black as charcoal, and abnormally thick, was held lazily at his side._

 _"W-who_ are _you?!" Elizabeth managed to cough out, her voice high, high with horror, high with panic - and almost entirely drowned out by the roaring flames and crackling wood._

 _"Who am I?" a voice hissed from the man, despite that his lips were not moving at all. A voice that was heard perfectly clear, even amidst all the chaos around them. "I...am Lord Voldemort. And you, Elizabeth Potter, will meet your end on this day. You who_ ruined me!" _the voice snarled, filled with a sudden, almost palpable fury. "You who_ destroyed _me, who turned me to_ nothing _, nothing but a parasite, a being weaker than the weakest of ghosts!"_

 _"I- I don't understand..." Elizabeth squeaked, backing away from Voldemort further still, tears burning down her face as she shook her head. "Why...how could you_ do all of this..." _Her back hit the wall at the corridor's bend, and a glance down the hall, perhaps her only salvation, revealed something very unexpected._

 _Or rather, someone. A girl with blond hair, and beautiful blue eyes, who looked much as Elizabeth felt; terrified and confused beyond anything she ever could have imagined. Dot._

 _Elizabeth wanted to tell her to run, to tell her to just go back and get away, but sudden movement from Voldemort brought Elizabeth's attention back to him. He turned on the spot, and suddenly he was right in front of her, towering over her, and his wand was pressing against her throat._

 _"Eight years ago, Elizabeth Potter, you brought about my end." Voldemort said softly. "And now, right here, right now, I bring about_ your _-" He froze, and Elizabeth's heart stopped beating. Voldemort turned, and looked right at the frozen-to-the-spot Dot._

 _Faster than Elizabeth's eye could ever hope to see, Voldemort turned his wand from Elizabeth to Dot. "Avada Kedavra!"_

 _A green flash of light lit up the corridor, and then Elizabeth was slamming her elbow into Voldemort's stomach and whirling, spinning towards Dot as her dread spiked a thousandfold, as she_ remembered _that flash of light from her nightmares, the nightmares that always made her odd lightning scar hurt every time she awoke, and she was thinking, wishing, the impossible, that she could reach Dot, that she could get between her and the light, between her and something so horrible she could not even imagine, but Elizabeth knew, regardless, that she just_ had to-

 _Suddenly the world was twisting and turning, and Elizabeth was being squeezed, pressed on from all sides, and she couldn't breath now, she couldn't see, couldn't_ feel _anything around her, not the heat of the flames or the wood under her feet - and then she burst forth from it all, as if popping back into existence itself, and she found herself standing between Dot and that green light._

 _An incoherent scream spilled from Elizabeth's lips as the light spilled over her, as she felt something within her being ripped, torn out of her very body, something that seemed to be screaming along with her..._

"I died." Elizabeth whispered, high-pitched. But she was uncaring of that, and uncaring of how her whole body was trembling now, and uncaring of the tears starting to pour down her face.

"Elizabeth..." Snape breathed, his expression the absolute picture of softness, his eyes shining with the deepest of care - and of shock. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah." said Elizabeth, still in that high-pitched voice of hers. She swiped futilely at her tears with the back of her wand hand. "It sucked."

There was a long, heavy silence between them. A silence in which Elizabeth took the opportunity to do away with her tears, and regain her composure in its entirety. Snape took the time to retrieve his wand.

"Where did you learn to do an Engorgement charm - or the Stunning Spell, for that matter?" said Snape lightly, breaking the silence.

"I bought three extra books in Diagon Alley last summer." Elizabeth said simply.

Snape's eyes glittered with comprehension. "The ones you refused to show me the titles of." Elizabeth only smiled, and Snape scowled. "They were spellbooks." He went on slowly. "I assume, then, that you've been mastering their contents?"

"So has Dot." Elizabeth professed. "We only studied them over the summer, but on the train, and this past week, we've met up a few times to practice a few different spells, though we've been practicing mostly separate from each other on our own time."

"Then those reports of exploding toilets in the girls' bathroom on the first floor..."

Elizabeth managed a grin. "That was Dot trying to get a better hang of the Banishing Charm, among other spells. I tend to do my spellwork in the common room late at night, or in the dormitory."

Snape's scowl intensified, and his voice held a noticeable note of disapproval when next he spoke. "If I had known you were already messing about with unknown spells when I came to you Thursday morning after overhearing you and your friends express the desire to learn practical Defense..."

"Sorry." Elizabeth said, not looking away, and trying to at least _sound_ sorry, despite that she really _wasn't_. "But can you blame me - or Dot - after what happened to us? For so long, we waited for this. For so long, we...we wanted wands, we wanted to be able to defend ourselves from Voldemort should he ever come back. For years we've had this desire, and now we can actually act on it. We'll be ready to protect ourselves, to fight back next time."

"Be that is it may, rules are still being broken." Snape said quietly. "I do understand, I do." he added quickly. "I- I knew more spells than most seventh years when I first came to Hogwarts, and it all stemmed from my desire to no longer be helpless, defenseless, after...let's just say that my father was not a particularly nice man."

"So, what, you understand, but you're going to just let Dot be helpless?" Elizabeth said coolly. To her surprise, rather than being angry with her for her tone, Snape chuckled loudly.

"You can be as frightening as your mother when you put your mind to it." he explained, amused. "At any rate, the solution to the problem is simple: extend to Dot an invitation to join our dueling sessions." he added, at Elizabeth's threateningly narrowed eyebrows.

Elizabeth relaxed. "Thanks, Sev. She'll appreciate that."

"I'm sure she will." Snape said bracingly. "Now..." He raised his wand, assuming a dueling stance. "Are you ready to continue?"

In response, Elizabeth, not even bothering to raise her wand, simply pointed her wand at Snape from the hip and gave a cry of, "Stupefy!"

As fast as she was, and as ingenious she could be at times, Snape was faster and far more experienced - he deflected her spell up into the ceiling without saying a single word.


	8. Two Years Later

**Two Years Later**

In an orphanage at midnight, Elizabeth Potter lay awake in her bed, hands clasped together on her stomach, all ten fingers interlaced, gazing out her bedroom window with two, bright green eyes, and reflecting on just how much things had changed since she had begun her education at Hogwarts. She brushed her hair behind her ears and looked down at herself to relish in the sight of some of the more obvious and major changes; perfectly smooth, perfectly beautiful pale skin, a body on the whole that was very much more woman than girl, and ten, perfectly healthy toes, with nails that had been painted the glittering (literally, she had used glitter), emerald green color of her House.

Perfect, in other words.

Things had become perfect since she had started at Hogwarts, and embraced her identity as the Girl-Who-Lived.

Okay, maybe not perfect. There had been setbacks and difficulties, such as Voldemort's third attempt to murder her back in her first year (the man was _far_ too obsessed with killing her, and with possessing people, because he had been sharing Quirrell's body at the time) after having gotten her alone in the DADA classroom one evening (an encounter that had prompted Elizabeth to make the decision to undergo a several-weeks-long healing treatment at the end of her first year to repair her injuries, restore her lost limbs, and return her body to a state of wholeness and pure beauty), and even tragedies, what with the whole basilisk business last year, which had resulted in the deaths of Tails, Mrs. Norris, Dot's cat Sev, Ron Weasley, Seamus Finnigan, Colin Creevey; and very nearly Severus Snape, after the teachers had lured the creature out of the pipes and into a trap in order to defeat it in a last, desperate resort. It had only been because of Dumbledore's phoenix and its magical healing tears that Snape had survived.

As for the Heir of Slytherin, and the Chamber of Secrets...well, the legendary Chamber had been discovered, and the Heir of Slytherin, unbelievably, had been revealed to be none other than Ginny Weasley. Ginny, for her part, had told some wild tale about a cursed diary that had forced her to do all that she had done, and kill all who she had killed. As it so happened, a little black diary _had_ been found in her possession at the time of her apprehension by the staff, but they, as well as many experts from the Ministry for days after, had examined said diary, and not even the barest trace of dark magic had been found upon or within it. Thus, Ginny currently was residing in Azkaban prison, and would remain there until the end of her life.

Elizabeth had learned of all this after the fact, however, seeing as she had been petrified by the basilisk near the start of the year, and revived at the very end. She had also learned that, during the time of her petrification, Dot had almost literally moved into the hospital wing, so as to never be away from her. It was this that had saved Elizabeth's life. Or, more accurately, _Dot_ had saved Elizabeth's life, when Ginny had come bursting into the hospital wing late one night near the end of the year, determined to end Elizabeth's life, just hours before Ginny would then disappear down into the Chamber, where she would later be discovered by the teachers.

But now that the horrors of Elizabeth's second year were past, she had a great deal to look forward to in her upcoming third year at Hogwarts. One of the major causes for her excitement and anticipation had been in one of her more recently received letters from Snape (with whom she had kept up a regular correspondence with over the course of the summer holidays thus far), telling her that the inter-House dueling tournament was ready and waiting to be held come the student body's return to Hogwarts. Snape had also added that the efforts by the staff to prepare the tournament had been phenomenal, and that this would be a very good thing for all of them, especially after the horrors of last year.

Unfortunately, _annoyingly_ , Snape had refused to give away any details about the tournament in their letters since his deliverance of that little piece of news.

Elizabeth's late night musings were suddenly and inexplicably interrupted by soft, warm hands taking hers and placing them flat on her stomach, followed by a gentle, brushstroke sensation along the length of her fingernails, and the familiar, wonderful smell of fresh nail polish hitting her nose. Slowly, slowly, she turned to gaze upon the tall, blond, button-nosed, blue-eyed girl laying beside her on the bed.

"Dot, what are you doing...?" Elizabeth spoke in bemusement, after a long silence - a silence in which the brushstroke sensation continued.

"Painting your nails." Dot responded rather absently.

"It's the middle of the night!" laughed Elizabeth, though she did not pull her hands away, did remove them out from under Dot's tendings.

"And you're awake, and I'm bored."

"Implying, what, exactly? That you'd have set about painting my nails in my sleep?"

"Probably." came Dot's reply. "That, and you make no sense." she added, turning bright, humorous blue eyes on Elizabeth. "You paint your toenails, which, by the way, no one will ever see, but you leave your fingernails, which are always out in the open, completely blank?"

" _You_ see my toes all the time." Elizabeth countered eloquently. "Did it ever cross your pretty little mind that I was doing it for you?"

Dot was silent. Then, "Oh. Well then, I guess there's no real fashion crisis for me to correct here." But despite her words, she continued her work on Elizabeth's fingernails.

"If you're really this bored," Elizabeth started tentatively. "there is always something else we could do together..."

"Something we could do...and wake up the whole orphanage?" Dot replied, just as hesitantly, her blue eyes finding Elizabeth's green.

"Don't exaggerate..." muttered Elizabeth, glancing down at her fingernails.

Dot grinned and set the nail polish on the nightstand. "I'm up for it if you are."

"I'm the one suggesting it." Elizabeth said, rolling her eyes as she sat up in bed. "I think it's safe to say that, yes, I'm up for it."

"Great."

"Great."

Silence filled the room.

"Dot, you kind of need your wand for this."

"So do you."

"I'm not going to be the first one of us to-" Elizabeth broke off in mid-sentence and threw herself off the side of the bed as Dot's wand appeared in her hand. Elizabeth drew her phoenix wand from the waistband of her pajama shorts and sprang to her feet - just in time to block a Tickling charm from Dot.

"I'm really glad we got the approval of the Minister himself to do magic here without being punished." said Dot, smiling as they faced each other down, neither one moving, neither one casting another spell just yet.

"You mean you're glad _I_ got his approval." Elizabeth corrected, smiling a wide, beautiful smile in answer to Dot's, and recalling just how easy it had been to secure Fudge's, and so the Ministry on the whole's, permission on the matter at the start of summer. In fact, at the time, Fudge had seemed almost eager to agree to the allowance, something Elizabeth had found rather odd, but had simply put out of her mind. " _You_ didn't do anything, except stand there and look menacing. Now, what I'M glad about is that it necessitated telling Mrs. Jones about magic."

"That, too." Dot agreed, giving her wand a silly flourish. "She's the closest thing to a mom either of us have. But someday, I'd like to find and meet my real parents." she added darkly.

"I know." Elizabeth said quietly. "I know." Dot's expression twisted with anger - not for Elizabeth, she knew - and she risked casting a spell that was a little more aggressive than her opening spell; a cutting curse. Elizabeth blocked the spell with ease, and absorbed it into her shield, not allowing it to deflect, for if it had, the spell would have carved a very deep gash in the wall - or anything else in the room.

"The things I want to do to them!" Dot whispered furiously, firing off a Stunner- a cutting curse- a blasting curse- and lastly a second Stunning spell. Elizabeth blocked them all, but she would have been lying to say it hadn't taken some actual effort on her part. "I mean, seriously, who leaves a baby on a doorstep with _nothing_?" Dot continued (and continued tossing out spells), her eyes burning, her lips spitting forth every word she spoke. "No bundle of blankets, no _clothes_ , not even a little scrap of paper with my name written on it! If they didn't want to even go out of their way to do _those_ simple little things, why dump me off here? Why even let me be born at all?!"

Elizabeth said nothing, and Dot's spellwork - and her anguish - tapered off, until all that filled the room was silence, rather than flashing lights and the crackling of so much magical energy in a confined space. Dot lowered her wand, stowed it back up the sleeve of her nightgown (where she was using a headband around her upper arm to act as a holster), and rather unceremoniously threw herself face-first on the bed.

"Sorry." Dot's muffled voice came to Elizabeth's ears, filled with notes of dejection and tiredness that made Elizabeth's heart ache.

"Don't be." Elizabeth replied, stuffing her wand into her waistband and gliding over to the bed, where she sat down beside Dot and placed a hand on her back. "You didn't hurt me, and it's good to let those sorts of things out."

"Says you..." Dot murmured, looking over her shoulder at Elizabeth. "It just makes me feel ugly - not physically, I know I'm a goddess."

"You are." Elizabeth said sincerely, giving Dot's back a solid pat. "Whereas _my_ goddess status is still up for debate..."

"It's still _not_ up for debate." Dot groaned. "We're _both_ beauty queens of England, and that's that."

"Now, maybe." Elizabeth conceded, her tone playful. "But a year ago...?"

"Could you move your hand-"

"No!"

"Not _down_ ; _off_." Dot laughed. "Unless you want me to roll over and have your hand end up on my-"

"I get the picture." interrupted Elizabeth quickly, delicately removing her hand from Dot's back. Dot rolled over and sat up, her face holding a little bit of very real disappointment.

"Do you?" Dot said, fixing Elizabeth with a very intense look.

"I do." Elizabeth said gently. "I know what you want, Dot, but I can't give it to you, because I don't know what I want yet."

"You want to be the Girl-Who-Lived." Dot replied, shaking her head. "But who says you can't be a heroine _and_ a girlfriend?"

"Isn't that as good a reason as any to hold out on you?" Elizabeth countered, taking Dot's hand, but not breaking eye contact. "Four years ago, Voldemort tried to kill you here because he thought you were just a filthy Muggle. When he was possessing Quirrell _two_ years ago, he saw, all year, that we were best friends. If he knew that you and I were girlfriends, don't you think he'd see it as all the more reason to capture you, torture you, and use you against me?"

"But that's just it!" Dot cried, her expression pained. "He already knows we're best friends, which means he's going to come after me anyways! It won't matter whether or not we start being girlfriends."

"I don't care." Elizabeth said flatly. "I might be immune to death, but you're not, and I'm not going to lose you."

"You mean you aren't going to _risk_ having me and then lose me." Dot all but spat. "Damnit, Liz, don't do this. Not to me, and not to yourself. Don't you _dare_ revert back to that scared little girl who hid up in her room all the time because she didn't want to face anything, or take any chances. You've been so wonderful since then, you've come so far, done so much, _chanced_ so much...why can't you do it one more time, and for me, no less?"

Dot's words gave Elizabeth some major pause. Was Dot right? Was this Elizabeth's fear controlling her? Was this that scared, withdrawn girl coming back up again? Coming back up to take hold of Elizabeth, and drag her back down with her all over again? Moreover, could Elizabeth deny Dot's logic? No. Dot was right on all counts. Elizabeth had come so far, done so much, overcome so much...was she really going to stop now? Was she really _not_ going to seize the chance to strengthen, to deepen the relationship between the two of them, and the chance to grant Dot the thing she had yearned for (even if Dot had not been fully aware of all that the granting of that yearning would entail until quite recently) ever since Elizabeth had saved her life?

And, Elizabeth knew, Dot was also right about Voldemort. He would come for her no matter what, because he already had _reason_ to come after her.

"I'm not reverting." Elizabeth said finally, firmly. "But I have missed this." she confessed, lacing her fingers with Dot's. "Just you and me, alone together. Hogwarts is too crowded, too noisy, too...sometimes it still gets to me, and I can't help it."

"You've missed us..." Dot whispered, looking away. "Are you going to let us be us? Let us be together?" she added, still with her head turned, her voice high.

"I promised you, two years ago, that I wouldn't let fear stop me." Elizabeth voiced softly. She let Dot's hand go, raised her own up to be placed upon Dot's cheek, and gently turned Dot's head. "Well right now, it's trying to stop me...and I'm trying not to let it..."

Dot's swimming blue eyes blinked, and within their depths shimmered first hope, then comprehension, and a watery smile came to her lips. "Then _don't_." she choked out. "We both know how strong you are, so just use that strength and hurry up and kiss me before I die of-"

Elizabeth acquiesced; she leaned in, and captured Dot's lips with her own.

"There..." Elizabeth breathed as, after ten long seconds (ten slightly awkward seconds, in Elizabeth's opinion), they broke apart. "How did four years of finally-answered, unrequited love taste?"

Dot, frowning, licked her lips. "Like blueberry chewing gum. That's...kind of weird, actually...I...expected more?"

Her face burning, Elizabeth did her best to just shrug casually, then she closed her eyes, and fell back onto the bed. A moment later, Dot joined her in crashing to the mattress. They lay together in silence for several minutes until-

"I'm going to finish painting your nails."

Elizabeth whipped out her wand and sent Dot rolling off the bed with a Banishing charm.

"Does this mean we're not dating?" Dot groaned from the floor.

"That depends. Do you want to taste blueberry gum for the rest of your life?" said Elizabeth, smiling to herself.

"Aww, that's one of those things where...uh..." Dot trailed off, still on the floor.

"Catch-22." Elizabeth said patiently.

"Yeah, thanks, one of those...I guess I'll learn to live with the taste of blueberries, but just for you." Dot finally sighed.

"Alright, yay, we're girlfriends; now get up here and go to sleep."

Dot sprang to her feet like a jack-in-the-box.

"Gladly." she said, climbing into bed again. "And for the record, you were the one still awake when I woke up."

"All the more reason..." smirked Elizabeth, putting an arm around Dot and drawing her close. Dot didn't hesitate to snuggle in closer still, or to rest her head on Elizabeth's chest. "You know those aren't pillows, right?" giggled Elizabeth.

"Pillows, boobs, same thing in my book." Dot yawned, burying her face in Elizabeth's chest.

"And _that_ is your problem." Elizabeth teased. "That was why you expected so much out of that kiss. You read too many fairy tale stories."

"I had nothing better to do while you were petrified all last year." Dot defended.

"And before that?" prompted Elizabeth, grinning.

"And before that," Dot lifted her head long enough to give Elizabeth a glare. "while you were in the hospital four years ago, I had nothing better to do but read my fantasy books. And before _that_ , when I didn't exactly have any friends in this place, I had nothing better to do but read my books." she added quickly, before Elizabeth could speak.

"Your fairy tale books." Elizabeth reiterated, absently beginning to stroke Dot's hair.

"I'm confused here," Dot's muffled voice sounded against Elizabeth's body - hummed, really, and Elizabeth couldn't help but notice just how _nice_ it felt. "does the _witch_ have a problem with the fantasy genre? Is that what I'm hearing?"

"I don't have a problem with it." Elizabeth argued. "You hit the nail on the head there, though. I'm an actual, real witch! I can never enjoy the fantasy genre again, because, one, it's totally inaccurate to the point of making me laugh, and two, I...okay, yeah, I've never liked fantasy." she admitted lamely.

Dot raised her head again, and looked Elizabeth in the eyes with equal parts playfulness and seriousness. "What's not to like? Love breaks the curse, the hero - that's you - gets the girl, and everyone lives happily ever after."

Elizabeth sighed, and let her hand rest on Dot's head. "Because love _can't_ break curses on its own, I concede your second point only because it's happening right now, and lastly: not everyone lives happily ever after. Ask Tails and Sev, and Ron Weasley and Colin Creevey."

"If you can't put away your reality enough to enjoy a book, I think you really _do_ have a problem." Dot joked.

"It took you that long to realize I have problems?" Elizabeth retorted, raising an eyebrow.

Dot shook her head, then bowed her head, and kissed Elizabeth's chest, causing the latter to blush. "No, no. It just took me this long to say it to your face."

"Don't kiss your pillows..." Elizabeth murmured, feeling very heated, despite that she was _not_ laying under any blankets.

"Would you rather I drooled over them?"

"I swear to god, if I wake up in the morning with a puddle between my-" Elizabeth started fiercely - and very seriously.

"You won't, you won't." Dot quickly assured. "I'm sorry, that was horrible of me, I know. Sorry."

"You've never been a drooler, so if I _do_ wake up to that, I'll know you did it on purpose while I was asleep." Elizabeth couldn't resist saying. "And IF I do wake up to that, I'll turn your schoolbag into a bunny rabbit."

Dot sat bolt upright, pushing off Elizabeth's body and knocking the air out of her lungs. "You can do that?" she said, genuinely shocked - and not in a bad way. "Bunnies are the _second_ cutest animals on the planet! Cats still reign supreme, but you know-"

"How silly of me to think that would actually be a punishment to you." gasped Elizabeth, rubbing her ribs and sucking in as much air as she could. "And since when do you know the words 'reign' and 'supreme'?"

"Since I started hanging out with you, the walking thesaurus." Dot snorted, laying back down on Elizabeth, and knocking the wind out of her all over again.

"The thesaurus would really like to be able to keep breathing, _and_ she'd like to finally get to sleep."

"Fine." Dot pouted, her face again disappearing into the top of Elizabeth's tank top. "Good night."

"Good night." Elizabeth said softly, bringing her arms around Dot's form and holding her closer, one hand coming to rest on her back, and the other on the back of her pretty blond head. However, after nearly (according to the alarm clock on Elizabeth's nightstand) ten minutes, Dot spoke once more.

"I love you, Liz." she whispered in the darkness.

"I know." Elizabeth whispered back, suppressing her exasperation and patting the back of Dot's head. Because as much as Elizabeth wanted to sleep, she was _not_ going to get irritated with Dot, not now, not when she had finally made the declaration of love that she had been wanting to make for so many years. "I know, I've always known, even going back so far as the first time I woke up after the fire, and you were there, sitting there and watching me...I've always known...and I love you too." she said, taking the plunge. "I don't think you ever knew that, but now that you do I'm going to show you how much I do love you, every single day, from here on out."

"I've always known you cared about me." Dot admitted. "I knew you'd do anything for me, I knew that you felt as strongly for me as I did for you, but I thought that was just...emotionally in general. I never thought you loved me back. I never thought you _ever_ would."

"Yeah, well, surprise surprise..."

"I'll say." Dot laughed softly. "Want to tell Sev? Mrs. Jones? The world?" she rattled off suddenly.

Elizabeth smiled. "They'll be happy for us, so, I don't see why not."

"Great. Then, I was thinking maybe we could go out tomorrow? See a movie, or maybe go to the zoo, or even the adventure park?"

"That does sound great, lovely, even, but we don't have any money." Elizabeth said, frowning.

"But we have wands now, and the Ministry has approved of our use of magic outside of school." Dot reminded, adopting a mischevious voice. "And furthermore, one of us just _might_ know how to do a Confundus charm, which will get us into any of those three places without paying..."

"Why didn't you join me in Slytherin?" Elizabeth said, dumbfounded.

"Oh, so you don't disapprove?" said Dot, voice full of relief. "Great, great, because I thought, you know, with that whole Girl-Who-Lived, goody two-shoes thing you have going on for you lately that you would have been pissed at me for even _thinking_ of using magic for something like that."

"It's the summer holidays." Elizabeth smirked, kissing the top of Dot's head. "I'm off duty."

* * *

"Oh my god, would you _stop it_?!"

Dot (and several dozen passersby) looked at Elizabeth in the aftermath of her outburst. The former hid her wand in the folds of her skirt, and the latter flushed at all the looks she had garnered. Although, it had been Dot who had brought about Elizabeth's outburst to begin with.

Elizabeth stepped in close to Dot and grabbed her wand wrist. "The Confundus will _not_ be your answer to everything!" she hissed in Dot's ear, trying to suppress the amusement she felt just as much as her exasperation. "You got us into this adventure park with the Confundus, you got us on that really, really terrifying roller coaster with the Confundus, and, oh yeah, you won _that_ little prize for me by _Confunding the lady at the guessing game booth_!" On "that" Elizabeth gestured to the prize under Dot's right arm that was anything _but_ little; a purple, stuffed bear that was half as tall as Elizabeth herself.

Dot blinked and looked mournfully over at the ice cream truck parked right underneath a close grouping of trees. "But...but...ice cream...no money...I need..."

"NO!" Elizabeth half laughed, half barked, dragging Dot's arm down again, as the latter made to raise and aim her wand at the woman manning the ice cream truck from across the distance. "At least wait until we're right there, and until no one's looking too closely at us."

"Fat chance of that happening, since we got Barry here." Dot giggled, raising the stuffed bear up by an arm.

"Barry?" Elizabeth repeated, incredulous. " _Barry_?"

"I will use this on you." Dot twitched her wand threateningly at Elizabeth.

" _BARRY?!_ " Elizabeth said shrilly, again earning herself looks from the moving crowds around her - and drawing the attention of one of the park security guards that happened to be passing by.

"Oi, you girls having a problem here?" said the guard, scrutinizing them rather heavily.

"No problems here." said Dot, putting on a winning smile (Barry stared off somewhere to the left).

"None at all." Elizabeth quickly agreed.

"What's that you got there?" The guard had noticed Dot's wand.

Elizabeth's heart skipped a beat, but she managed to keep herself from startling, or flushing, or giving any other change in demeanor or expression that most likely would have gotten her marked up as "suspicious" and "guilty" by the guard.

Dot just shrugged and brought her wand up, twirling it casually between her fingers. "Magic wand." she said simply.

The guard eyed them for a moment longer, then snorted, shook his head, and walked away.

Dot looked after him longingly, lowering her wand once more with definite hesitation. "Confunduuuuusssss..." she moaned.

"I wonder if it's possible to get addicted to a spell." Elizabeth wondered aloud.

"I'm addicted." Dot said instantly. She pointed to the ice cream truck with a trembling hand, twitching her wand repeatedly at her side. "And I'll start having withdrawal symptoms if I don't get some ice cream. And _Confund_ someone to _get_ the ice cream." she added, causing all the hope Elizabeth might have recently found in Dot's ability to restrain herself due to their encounter with the guard to plummet.

Nevertheless, the two witches made their way over to the ice cream truck, and waited patiently in line for several minutes before it was their turn.

"Hi." Elizabeth greeted the woman in the truck, casting an inconspicuous glance around, and finding that there was no one in line behind them, and that no one in the vicinity was paying too particular an attention to them.

"Hi there." said Dot cheerfully, casually placing her hands on the countertop extending out from the window. One of her hands held her wand, and to anyone else it would have looked as if it were pointing at the woman by pure, random chance - or the lack of attention payed to it by the girl holding it.

"What would you girls like?" the woman asked, smiling at them. The girls gave the woman their orders, and she busied about with preparing a chocolate sunday for Dot, and getting a simple lemon ice pop for Elizabeth. "All right, that'll be ten pounds." the woman informed them as she handed them their ice creams from across the counter.

"Confundus!" Dot coughed. Then she said, in cheery tones, as the woman's face took on an almost blank look, "Thanks for the ice cream!" And with that, Dot and Elizabeth walked away, with the woman waving at their retreating backs and calling after them, "Enjoy!"

"Damn I'm awesome." Dot whispered to herself in faux-awed tones, as they next headed for a set of tables with umbrellas where they would be able to sit and enjoy their ice creams.

"You're _something_ , alright." Elizabeth laughed, kissing Dot on the cheek with lemon pop-covered lips.

"So, what should we do next?" asked Dot, after they had found themselves an empty table, and had spent a few minutes eating their ice creams.

Elizabeth looked around the park, considering.

"There's a hamburger restaurant about two blocks from here. We could go there and fill up on some real food." she said finally, for apart from the ice creams, they had eaten nothing since breakfast back at the orphanage, before departing for the adventure park (they had, regrettably, had to lie to Mrs. Jones, and they had told her that they would be spending the day simply walking about, visiting a few public parks, and perhaps even the public library), and it was now a solid three in the afternoon. "And yes, you'll have to Confund everyone in the whole bloody restaurant." Elizabeth added, as Dot opened her mouth.

"Go me." Dot grinned, taking Elizabeth's hand and swinging it between them and their chairs, which prompted Elizabeth to lean over and kiss Dot squarely on the lips, laughing as she did (Barry was sitting directly on Dot's left, far out of Elizabeth's reach, and staring at a nearby photo booth, because he didn't want to watch the two witches and their flirtatious behavior).

"Go us." smiled Elizabeth, rising from her chair. "Unless you aren't hungry for burgers...?"

Dot quickly stood up as well, and took Barry under her arm again. "I'm always hungry for burgers. And fries. The curly ones, not the weird, straight ones. And then, not the little thin ones, but the..."

Talk of the impending food took them all the way out of the adventure park's main gates, and then talk of just how far the restaurant _actually_ was took them the next two blocks. They were just passing by an alleyway when something very big, and very dark came bounding out of the alley's mouth. The girls were frozen to the spot as an enormous, shaggy black dog approached them.

Dot was the first of the two to regain her senses, and her first action was to raise her wand and point it at the dog.

"Hey!" cried Elizabeth, grabbing Dot's wand arm and forcing it down. "Are you _kidding me_?"

"I wasn't going to Confund the dog." Dot chortled. "Just give it a nice, good hit with a Stinging hex and make it scamper off."

Elizabeth just shook her head and got down in front of the dog, which was now wagging its tail at her. She fearlessly reached out a hand and gave it a few firm pats on the head, then started stroking its fur. "See? He's friendly. No need at all to give him a good hexing. Isn't that right, Blacky? No hexing for you, nope, no one here is going to be hexing you..."

"Blacky?" Dot repeated, a wide grin coming over her face.

"Shut up, it's still better than Barry." Elizabeth said absently, kissing the top of the dog's head and proceeding to search under its neck fur for some sort of collar. There wasn't one. "Weird. He's either a really well-behaved stray, or someone let their dog loose without a collar." she informed Dot.

"Maybe we should take him home with us." Dot suggested, not at all seriously.

"Maybe we should." Elizabeth said thoughtfully, tilting her head at the dog. "He really seems to like me, and...It's kind of funny. I've never considered myself a dog person. We could take him in, and put up fliers and everything in the meantime."

"Hey, I know you're still hurting over Tails, and I still am over Sev," Dot said quietly. "but you can't just go decide to take in the first random animal you come across. Besides, we have a date with some burgers." Elizabeth stood, sighing, and the dog gave a pitiful whine and started pawing at her. "Annnnd we're taking him with us, aren't we?" Dot sighed, herself.

"Yes, yes we are." Elizabeth said firmly, coming to a decision. As if the dog had understood her, he immediately started wagging his tail again, and then he sat back on his haunches, as well-behaved as any trained dog.

Dot made a face. "Just so we're clear, you'll get nothing from me." she told the dog.

As if in response, the dog let out a huff of air that Elizabeth almost could have mistaken for a very human snort.

* * *

It turned out to be another three blocks to the restaurant that Elizabeth had seen on their way to the adventure park, and once they were there...well, Blacky had had to be left outside, and no amount of Confunding could have changed that - the restaurant didn't allow pets, and Blacky would have attracted way too much attention from all the other customers.

So, before entering, Elizabeth had ordered Blacky to sit out front, and, to both her surprise and her satisfaction, he had sat himself right down without hesitation, and had remained so as she and Dot went in.

Dot, of course, was _very_ disappointed that she would _not_ , in fact, be Confunding every single person in the restaurant, but, a good, cheesy burger and fries after a ten minute wait cheered her right up.

"So," Elizabeth began, after a very large bite of her own burger. "where do you want to go after we're done here?"

"Back to the adventure park, of course." answered Dot, grinning.

"Of course." Elizabeth smiled. "I was thinking maybe we could do something different. Go somewhere different."

"But we already spent all that _money_ to get in!" Dot exclaimed, clapping her hands to her face. "I'll not have all my hard earned pounds be thrown down the drain because _you_ don't want to take full advantage of the admittance into the park!"

"We can go back whenever we want." Elizabeth laughed, after looking furtively around the restaurant for anyone who might have been close enough to their booth to overhear them (there _was_ an old man a few booths over). "I was just thinking that maybe we could...I don't know...stop by Diagon Alley."

"What for?" asked Dot.

Before Elizabeth could answer, her attention was drawn to the television across the restaurant, where a newsreader on the television was halfway through a report on an escaped convict. "...the public is warned that Sirius Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hotline has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately."

"Thank you, world." Dot said, amused. "Thank you for proving that Blacky is a really _stupid_ name. Black, Blacky...Stupid, stupid, _stupid_."

"I'm so glad that was all you got out of the news broadcast of an escaped convict." Elizabeth said, all sarcasm.

"So why do you want to go to Diagon Alley?" Dot pressed, ignoring Elizabeth's retort.

"I just wanted to put a little magic into our lives..." Elizabeth faked a sniffle.

Now it was Dot's turn to be sarcastic. "As if we don't have enough already...But, I'll go." she added seriously, taking up and finishing off her hamburger. "If only because we _do_ still need to go shopping for next year's school supplies, and we can just get it out of the way now."

"Only three weeks to go, and then summer vacation's over." Elizabeth sighed, both in relief and regret.

After finishing their meals, they exited the restaurant, and found that, unfortunately, Blacky was gone.

"I don't understand it." Elizabeth was saying, some five minutes later, while they were well on their way to the Leaky Cauldron. "He was so good, so...why would he just up and leave me like that?" To say Elizabeth was devastated would have been an overstatement, but she _was_ more than a little upset.

"Trained or not, he's still just a dog." Dot said quietly, squeezing Elizabeth's hand comfortingly. "Maybe he saw a cat and went after it."

"Maybe." Elizabeth sighed, shaking her head, and causing her long, dark red hair to shimmer under the sunlight. But even still, during the whole walk to the Leaky Cauldron, she kept looking left and right, hoping for a glimpse of Blacky.

When they finally arrived at the filthy old wizarding pub, however, Elizabeth still had not seen hide nor tail of Blacky.

Neither Elizabeth or Dot had any trouble with the patrons in the pub as they passed through to the back, where the entrance to Diagon Alley awaited them, for everyone who had come in and out of the pub over the last two years had heard the story of the first ever visit to it by the Girl-Who-Lived, and how she had blown up the whole establishment with a _veryi_ powerful burst of magic.

"Your reputation precedes you." Dot teased, as she began tapping out the brick sequence required in order to enter the alley. "I'd say you're a _legend_ in there, really. No one is ever going to forget you - or what you did."

"I wish they would." Elizabeth snapped, feeling equal parts irritated and embarrassed.

"Never going to happen." said Dot, in a singsong voice, as she made the final brick tap in the sequence.

The archway entrance to Diagon Alley took shape, and together they strode through into the magical alley.

* * *

"Where were you?" Mrs. Jones demanded, her brown eyes narrowed, her voice full of a strange mix of anger, fear, and worry. "Dinner was over two hours ago, you never _once_ came back here to check in with me, and-"

"Ow!"

Throughout Mrs. Jones' tirade, Dot had been slowly raising her wand, her lips silently mouthing the word "Confundus", only to have her wrist slapped, hard, by Elizabeth.

"We were getting our school supplies." Elizabeth said calmly, gesturing at their cauldrons, which were full of, among other things books and Potions ingredients. "It took a little longer than we thought it would. We did eat in Diagon Alley, though." she added truthfully. In fact, nothing she had just said was a lie.

Mrs. Jones, faced with inarguable evidence before her very eyes, let out a long breath, and ran her hand through her long, brown hair. "I'm sorry, I was just so worried, I..."

"We're fine." Elizabeth assured smoothly. "And we're sorry to have worried you."

"Fine." Mrs. Jones repeated, stepping forward and giving the girls each a brief hug. "Just...go up to bed. It's nearly lights-out, anyways. And don't ever try and do that again." she added firmly, with a hard look at Dot.

Dot shifted on her feet, unable to hide the guilt. Still, she managed to say, "Do what?"

"You know very well what, Dot. Don't ever try and put a spell on me." said Mrs. Jones fiercely.

"I thought I already did." Dot spoke, trying in vain to maintain her cheerful front, even now, but her face crumbled, and her voice broke with the remorse she felt. "You know...the night I first came here...with my cute little face, and my toes..."

"You did." Mrs. Jones said softly, her harsh demeanor falling away in the face of Dot's own, changed attitude. "Hundreds of children have passed in and out of this orphanage in my life running it, and I know...I know I'm not supposed to choose favorites, and I've never been a parent, not truly, but you...Dot...you've always been...I've always seen you as more of a daughter than just another child living here."

For a long moment, there was silence in the entrance hall.

Elizabeth didn't speak, and neither did Dot. Dot, who was crying silent tears that Elizabeth thought were more likely to be tears of joy than anything else.

"Go to bed." Mrs. Jones spoke, breaking the silence. "And the next time you want to go somewhere other than where you _told me_ you'd be going, come back here and discuss it with me first." she added sternly, before she swept out of the entrance hall, off to make her usual rounds.

Elizabeth and Dot obeyed the matron without a word, lugging their cauldrons along with them. And as they made their way up to Elizabeth's room, Dot made no attempt to hide her tears. Because she didn't have to. Not with Elizabeth. So Dot also did not hide the watery smile that stole over her lips, nor the accompanying, sparkling joy in her crystal blue eyes.

As they entered Elizabeth's - their, really - room, Dot let her cauldron lie in the middle of the room and sat down almost delicately on the bed, while Elizabeth neatly dragged HER cauldron into the corner of the room before joining Dot on the bed.

"You weren't really going to Confund Mrs. J, were you?" Elizabeth said, almost as soon as she had sat down. Dot looked away, but not before Elizabeth saw the shame in her eyes.

"Yeah, I was." Dot said quietly. "But now I'm glad I didn't." she added quickly. "It's like with you. I always knew she cared, but...not that deeply."

"Yeah, well, now we both have parental figures in our lives." Elizabeth smiled. "I have Sev, and you have Mrs. Jones."

"What if we could have both of them?" Dot said abruptly. Slyly.

"Elaborate." Elizabeth said slowly, peering at her girlfriend intently.

"What if we could get them together?" said Dot bluntly.

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment.

"No." she said simply, shaking her head.

"It was just an idea." Dot huffed.

"And you usually come up with very good ideas." Elizabeth said kindly. "Just not this time. That idea was just...so not good. So much so that we should take your idea, put it in a box, wrap that box in chains, then cover the whole thing in cement and throw it in the ocean."

"Okay," Dot said slowly. "but how do you really feel?"

"I have an idea!" Elizabeth proclaimed, as the aforementioned idea struck her like a bolt of lightning. "How about the next time we go out to some fun place, we invite Sev?!"

"How about no?" Dot challenged.

"You just don't like the idea because I didn't like yours." Elizabeth snorted.

"No, I don't like your idea because it's as bad as mine. If not worse." she added, smirking.

Elizabeth suddenly stood up from the bed, crossed the room, and kicked Barry the bear (who was standing next to Dot's cauldron, and staring at the bed) in the face, knocking him flat on his back. She spun on a heel to face Dot, smirking herself.

Dot blinked. "What was _that_ for?"

Elizabeth walked back to the bed and sat down again next to Dot. "Because I don't want him staring at me for what I'm about to do next." she replied. "He has creepy, beady eyes, and that smile of his is just..."

"What were you going to do next?" Dot said slowly, warily reaching for her wand.

"Nothing like that." Elizabeth said, eyeing Dot's wand with wariness of her own. "After the day we've had, I don't think I could manage a duel."

Dot's hand drifted away from her wand, and she smiled. "Then what is it?"

In answer, Elizabeth placed a hand on Dot's cheek, and kissed her on the lips for the second time in her life. Fully, deeply, and passionately, and all the while her free hand ventured to territories of Dot's form that were utterly unknown to Elizabeth.

"Before you ask me if it was any good," Dot said breathlessly after their parting, her gaze lowering to Elizabeth's hand, which was resting on her bare leg beneath her skirt. "that was...wow."

"Fairy tale wow?" Elizabeth said teasingly.

"As close as any girl can get, I think." Dot responded, smiling a trembling smile. "Can you do that again?"

Emboldened, Elizabeth nodded, but before her lips could travel even an inch closer to Dot's, the sound of rustling feathers filled the room, and both girls found themselves staring at a brown barn owl that had flown in and perched itself on the bed's footboard.

Attached to the owl's leg was a letter, and Elizabeth recognized the handwriting on the face of the letter immediately.

"It's from Snape." Elizabeth told Dot, sliding over on the bed towards the owl so as to retrieve the letter.

"How is it that he can interrupt something like that between us without even physically being here?" Dot said in disbelief (and severe disappointment). "Well, what does it say?" she sighed, toying with her skirt hem.

Elizabeth read the letter over three times before deigning to answer Dot. Even still, she didn't understand it. "It says he'll be here any moment now to pick us up to...to take us to spend the last few weeks of summer at Hogwarts."

No sooner had Elizabeth finished speaking, than the loud, unmistakable cracking noise of Apparition split the night.


	9. Evacuation

_**Author's Note**_

Hi, um, it's me, the author of this and other stories.

As you can see (no pun intended, because this isn't a note for puns), I'm back.

After nine months, I'm finally updating this story - and my other stories, after...well, admittedly lesser months, for them.

I just...want to tell the reason. The reason only a few of you out there know.

Last year, last October, I lost my wife. And that...obviously did...horrible things to me and...to my mental health/physical health. I thought I was okay, I thought I'd managed it, to heal, to...to cope. But, after a few months, I...I became...bad, again. And then even worse. So much worse, that I...well, it doesn't matter NOW, I suppose. But that's why I've been gone these past few months, anyway, because I...lost it. But, like I said, I'm back now, ready to write again. In a place and a position where I CAN write again, that is. I'm better now, life is better now - or, as good as it can be, considering. I've moved to another state, and that's helped a lot with it all, not having to keep staying in the same house as my dead wife, not having to sleep in the same bed that we slept together in for so long.

Anyway, just...know that I'm better, that I'll be writing again, and that this is why. You're my fans, my followers, my reviewers, and even some, my friends, and I thought you deserved to know what's been going on with me. I also want to say thank you, for reading, for reviewing, and enjoy what's to come.

 _ **End of Author's Note**_

* * *

"What's going on?" Elizabeth demanded of Snape, bounding into the entrance hall with Dot on her heels. Noting the wand in Snape's hand, Elizabeth traded looks with Dot, and both girls drew theirs as well. Elizabeth, after over a year of dueling lessons with Snape, and Dot, after _two_ years of it, both had Snape's training deeply ingrained in their minds. And one of the most important lessons they had learned was this: If Snape, of all people, felt the need to have his wand at the ready, they should too.

"There have been several reported sightings of Sirius Black here in London over the past few hours." Snape answered tersely.

"That psycho escaped convict from the news?" Dot said, in her typical, almost flippant manner. "That's horrible, but why does that mean we have to be evacuated? What's he got to do with us?"

Even as Dot spoke, Elizabeth's mind was racing a million miles an hour. If Snape was here for them _in direct consequence of_ reported sightings of Sirius Black around the city, then that could only mean...

"Sirius Black is a wizard, isn't he?" Elizabeth spoke, in low tones.

"Yes, he is." Snape stated.

"A Death Eater?" Elizabeth further inquired, as the reason behind Fudge's eagerness to grant her (and Dot's) request for exemption from The Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry became so obviously clear to her.

"Yes." Snape said shortly. "After I get the both of you to Hogwarts, I shall tell you all about Black if that's what you want, but in the meantime...please, take my arm, as we'll be Apparating directly into the school - the Headmaster has lifted the enchantments around his office alone, and has given us a very small window with which to utilize it."

"You want us to just leave Mrs. Jones, and everyone else, here?" Dot said angrily, disbelievingly. "If Sirius Black is a Death Eater, and he wants Elizabeth, and he shows up looking for her _here_ , on the off chance that he actually considers the possibility that you people are stupid enough to let Elizabeth keep living here when Voldemort himself _knows_ that she lives here, then there's going to be a repeat of four years ago, only this time, people I actually give a damn about might get hurt - or killed."

Snape didn't even try telling Dot off for her use of foul language (not that she ever listened to him, or anyone else on the matter). He simply sighed, then said, in clearly placating - yet slightly impatient now - tones, "I'm sure that the Minister could be persuaded to dispatch a team of Aurors to keep watch over the orphanage for the duration of the current crisis."

Dot ignored Snape (and his obvious-even-to-her attempt at getting her to just shut up and leave already), and instead looked to Elizabeth with eyes that blazed with something that caused the Girl-Who-Lived to feel...afraid. "You go, Liz." Dot spoke, her voice wavering, shaking with a terrible, seemingly barely in-check rage. "Go with Sev, get to Hogwarts, and stay safe. But I'm staying right here."

"Dot-" Snape began, even more impatient, as well as slightly exasperated.

"She stays behind." Elizabeth said quickly, for fear of just what Dot might do to Snape in the state she was in. A state of mind brought about by the triggering of Dot's ultimate, most deep-seated issue in life...

"Girls!" Snape snapped. "Enough, please! This is foolishness, _idiocy_ , and needlessly risking-"

"What the hell has all the training been for?!" Dot exploded, her voice at the very limits of its volume, producing a hoarse, incredible roar. "Two years with you - two years learning how to protect myself and others - and you want to stop me putting all that to use when the perfect situation that calls for it comes up? You want to _stop me_ from protecting my home, a woman who's the closest thing to a mother that I've ever had, and a whole lot of innocent kids?" Her whole body trembling, she shook her head, and then actually spit on the floor in front of Snape. He took a step back, his expression one of pure shock. "Maybe you haven't changed as much as Liz and I thought you had. Maybe you are still a cold-hearted, bitter bastard." Dot finished through clenched teeth. Elizabeth didn't think Dot had noticed that her wand had burned a hole several inches deep through the floor. Then again, knowing Dot, Elizabeth knew her girlfriend wouldn't have cared about it even if she had noticed. "Get out of here." Dot's voice, hoarse, quiet and trembling, met Elizabeth's ears, and burning blue eyes locked with her green. "Now, Liz."

Silently, Elizabeth nodded, and then, without hesitation, she stepped over to Snape and took hold of his arm. Snape didn't move an inch. His eyes were dark, and glued to Dot. "Don't make me stun you." he spoke, in a deadly, dangerous whisper.

Dot's facial features twisted into something very ugly, and almost inhuman in appearance - something that the angry tears that now streaked her face only served to magnify. "Don't make me slit your throa-"

"Dot!" Elizabeth cut across her girlfriend urgently. "Don't say something you'll regret."

"I won't." Dot said, her voice incredibly husky, staring right back at Snape with a deranged intensity. "Trust me, I won't."

"Elizabeth..." Snape said lowly, casting an eye at her, and Elizabeth knew what he wanted from her. Knew what he was saying: Convince her. Convince Dot to come with us. She's your girlfriend, your best friend, and you're the only one she ever truly listens to.

Elizabeth's fear spiked another few dozen notches upon realizing what Snape wanted from her, because, truth be told, she was not at all sure that Dot would not hurt _her_ if she tried to push her into anything right now. This was...this was beyond anything Elizabeth had ever seen before from her girlfriend. Although, to be fair, no one had ever done to Dot what Snape had just done to her - no one had ever pained her so, at the deepest level of her being, right in the most sensitive, most terrible wound she still had inside of her. A wound that Dot had had since her infancy, and had been the basis, the cause, the reason, the DRIVE, for very nearly every single one of her actions over the course of her life, and had played a most critical of parts in making Dot just who she was, in spirit and in mind.

And Snape had stabbed a butcher knife right into that wound, poured salt and alcohol over it at the same time, and then had lit it on fire and left it all there as it was, and _then_ had expected Dot to comply with his requests and be reasonable. And that was what Elizabeth saw very clearly: there was _not_ going to be any reasoning with Dot. Not now, not on this. That was what Snape was _failing_ to see, because he had not known Dot nearly as long as Elizabeth had, nor as intimately. He had no idea that this was not defiance or childish stubbornness on Dot's part. He had no idea _what he had just done_ to Dot...

Elizabeth looked up into Snape's face, tightening her grip on his arm. "Let's go, Sev." she said, quietly but firmly. "We'll talk to the Minister and get him to send those Aurors here once we get to Hogwarts, and then they'll do their job and keep the orphanage safe - Dot included."

"Please understand, Dot, that that is all I'm trying to do here," Snape appealed to Dot, in patient, gentle tones that Elizabeth had only heard him use with _her_. "Keep you safe. Elizabeth is the Girl Who Lived; I could have come here to take only her to safety, and leave you behind - like you so terribly _want_. Do you think...that anyone in our world would care if I _had_ come here with that intent? Elizabeth is their heroine, their savior, and you, Dot...are nothing to them." Dot made no response, nor did she give any indication that she had even heard Snape's words, those words that were gentle in tone, but harsh in meaning, yet spoken with intent to comfort, and broker understanding inside of her. Such an odd contrast, such a strange mixture...yet it could only have come from Severus Snape. But no, Dot said nothing, did nothing. She simply stood there, red-faced and blotchy, shaking and crying, her slitted, crystal gaze fixed upon Elizabeth. "Stay, then." Snape sighed, glanced down at Elizabeth, and then, without another word or glance spared for Dot, he disapparated, pulling Elizabeth along with him.

Upon arrival in the Headmaster's office, they were met by none other than Albus Dumbledore himself.

"Elizabeth, Severus." Dumbledore acknowledged their appearance with a nod, then frowned. "While I'm pleased to see you've made it here safely, where is Miss Dot?"

"She decided to stay at the orphanage." Elizabeth spoke before Snape could, in a very calm, very unconcerned voice (the exact opposite of how she was actually feeling about her girlfriend's decision, even _if_ she, unlike Snape, understood it, and perhaps moreso than even Dot herself realized). "I'm sure the Ministry of Magic can spare a few Aurors to protect her - and everyone else there - until Sirius Black is caught." she continued on steadily, locking eyes with the Headmaster.

"Undoubtedly." Dumbledore agreed, giving Elizabeth a smile of approval, as well as - oddly, Elizabeth thought - pride. "You had best be off down to the dungeons, my dear girl - I will Floo the Minister and make your request to him immediately." he added, as if he had somehow sensed that, at that very moment, Elizabeth had been about to open her mouth and...say something that she probably shouldn't say to the headmaster of her school.

 _Dot...please...stay safe._ thought Elizabeth, as she (escorted by Snape, of course) obeyed Dumbledore's instructions and traveled through the castle to the dungeons - and so to her dormitory.


End file.
